Are We There Yet?

Man who wants a bread roll
instead of a slice of bread
gets slapped with a raw steak.

Are we there yet? This is a common enough question in some quarters, especially on long automobile trips. But, you might well ask in the context of our current sociopolitical travails, just where is “there.” There is little doubt in my mind that we are on our way “there,” wherever “there” is exactly. Consider our current situation. First, we have a “war” in Afghanistan that no one seems to understand very well. That is, just why we are there is not clear. What is clear is that this is almost certainly not a necessary “war” and is going to be very expensive for a very long time (in spite of claims to the contrary). In terms of our economy this could very well be the “war” that breaks the camel’s economic back. We are near bankruptcy, in debt up to our eyeballs, and no end in sight. But still we persist in this seeming rush to “there” (victory, defeat, or whatever), with little or no regard for the cost. Ironically enough, this “war” is being pushed an accelerated by what we believed was a “peace” President.

Then consider our attempt to create a system of health care that, if successful, would put us at least somewhat on a par with all other industrialized nations. This attempt is failing miserably. Our “leaders” have sold us out to their masters in the Insurance and Pharmaceutical industries. After months of apparently “good faith” efforts on the part of a few, what we have at the moment, it seems, with respect to being “there,” is a plan that would rid the Insurance companies of older people (55 years and up) that are the most likely to need expensive health care, while at the same time forcing all those younger than that to take out health insurance or be fined for not doing so, thus adding some 30 million or so more suckers for the Insurance giants to fleece. A few of those involved in these negotiations seem to believe that by lowering the Medicare eligible age to 55 we are at least “getting our nose under the tent.” But, you may wonder, why discriminate against those who are younger than 55? Why not lower the age to 45, or even 35, or even make it available to everyone? That would then constitute genuine health care reform that would be simple and efficient and include everyone. Well, because to go “there” would cost the Insurance companies money and of course we couldn’t have that. Why should they not receive huge profits for doing nothing but shuffling papers and scheming for new ways to rip people off?

Of course the banks are doing well. Banks always do well. Our banks do very well indeed because they are concerned only with making money for themselves at the expense of the general public. So while our “leaders” have made sure the banks are not suffering, they have done so at the expense of the public. Our citizens are losing their jobs, their homes, their pensions and life savings, but the banks are booming. They are colluding with other huge corporations to reduce our country to a situation roughly approximating the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, where there is a superabundance of serfs and peasants to do the simple tasks of cleaning latrines and sweeping floors and other services, while the real jobs have been shipped overseas to places where labor is even cheaper. The “stimulus plan” has certainly stimulated the banks and the ultra-wealthy, but left everyone else far behind, sinking into a morass of poverty and misery not of their own doing.

Gobal warming, probably the greatest threat to the human species ever, although agreed upon by all reputable scientists, is considered nothing but a nuisance by the corporations that make their money by creating it. There is to be a meeting in Copenhagen of most of the powers that be (and I guess a few others) to discuss this truly dangerous change in climate. The best guess is the best that will come of this meeting is to delay any meaningful action until the next meeting. In the modern age this seems to be the only real function of meetings.

Our current situation, dire as it is, is the direct result of what is called “free market capitalism.” What this really means is something like “the law of the jungle,” whereby the strong take from the weak with no regard for human health or welfare, and short term profits are the “there” we are striving for. This is a system that promotes human greed to an exalted status and has no respect for those who might not be entirely sympathetic to this cannibalistic culture. This system, having failed completely and plunged us into a deep recession with real unemployment probably hovering around 20% is still regarded by some (mostly Republicans) as “the way to go.” We could, as many very successful countries have, go to a system of Democratic Socialism, except that our citizens for the most part have been conditioned to view the term “socialism” as roughly equivalent to cyanide poisoning, and, as most of them have no idea of what this is all about, simply accept capitalism as “the best system on earth” (in spite of what they see with their own eyes, and experience with their own emotions). The capitalists have done a fine job in bringing this about and are determined to keep it going until they have squeezed out the last drop of capital and self-esteem from a completely devastated, ignorant, and largely helpless population.

While all this is going on, and our President is (at least presumably) trying to make things at least a bit better for us, there are those who have nothing but contempt for him (he’s not all white, you know). Sarah Palin, a women who lacks the brains of a horses’s ass, but has the chutzpah of an old time snake-oil salesman, is touring the country hawking her book of whines and lies to an adoring public who seem to think she is worthy of even the highest position in the world (this is frightening almost beyond belief). If this is not bad enough, there is a small group of people who are trying to promote Dick (the Slimy) Cheney for President. As Cheney has all the popularity of leprosy you might wonder where these people have been for the last few years. They are, of course, among those who have been “there” for the past few years, living off the sweat of your brow, your equity, and savings. Oh, I mustn’t omit the obligatory obeisance to the Mighty Malevolence himself, God Bless America.

LKBIQ:
If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.
Woody Allen

TILT:
Tai Chi, although it appears innocent enough, is actually a martial art.

What is "Participation?"

During argument, she pours
soda on his hamburger,
he rubs it on her face.

Just what is “participation?” I always thought this meant something like “take part in,” or be part of a larger enterprise or something like that. In recent years I have become somewhat confused over this seemingly simple word. For example, decisions are sometimes made in various cultures, certainly in some American Indian cultures and other relatively small scale societies, by consensus. Consensus means that whoever the participants are who are trying to make a decision keep discussing it until everyone involved agrees to a solution. A couple of years ago we had an interesting example of this. There was a committee formed to make a decision about the future of a particular species of fish. Several different groups were involved in this enterprise, representing different parts of the community. They decided their decision would not be widely accepted unless they also included a group of environmentalists. So they invited such a group to be represented. All went well for several months, many discussions were had, the issues were debated from all sides, everyone had their say, and they attempted to reach a consensus. They failed to do so because the environmentalists held out for something all the others disagreed with (or at least did not want to accept). This led to the resignation of the representatives of the environmental group. It was then announced that a consensus had been reached! In other words, the definition of consensus was changed to mean everyone was in agreement after those who were not were eliminated. Simple, no? People were asked to participate but when they offered their opinion they were no longer participants. The rules were changed.

I began thinking about this because I think a somewhat similar situation exists regarding the Republican Party. You may have noticed in the past year Republicans whining fairly regularly about not being able to participate in decisions being made by Democrats who now hold majorities in both houses of Congress. Leave aside for the moment the fact that when Republicans were in charge they systematically denied Democratic participation on important decisions. Leave aside also the fact that it is not strictly true they have been denied participation as they have at times offered amendments and such, many of which were accepted. In a democracy (such as ours is supposed to be) decisions are not made by consensus. Majority rule is supposed to be the standard. Immediately upon the election of President Obama the Republicans made it known they wished him to fail and they were not going to cooperate. They rather proudly proclaimed they would be the Party of “No,” and they have faithfully followed this strategy, no matter what it was Obama and the Democrats wanted to do. It seems to me this is changing the rules. If you are part of a democratic process where the majority rules, are you not obliged to continue participating even though your side or your particular position lost? How can a viable democracy continue if the losers simply no longer participate? Is this not what Republicans are doing, opting out of the democratic process? If you announce that your position is going to be “no,” no matter what the issue is, is that really participating? I guess in a sense you could argue that it is, you are participating by saying no, and saying no might be interpreted as a way of participating. This seems to me to be a weird claim of participation and makes little or no sense. Thus, in my opinion, Republicans have changed the rules of democracy, claiming that you do not have to abide by the majority will. By announcing they wish Obama (and by implication his administration currently representing the nation) to fail, and by refusing to participate, are they not perhaps committing treason? Is there such a thing as a little bit of non participation, something maybe like being a little bit pregnant. Or is it the case that you are either a participant or you are not. I have not previously heard of a case where one party to a democracy changed the rules, took their ball and went home. Oh well, it’s just a matter of running the country in a dangerous world and a dangerous situation. That can’t be as important as how many lovers Tiger Woods had, or whether or not Lolita has a new tattoo, or whether 40 million Americans have health care. Bravo Republicans! I am currently touting a Palin/Lieberman ticket. Let stupidity and egomania rule!

LKBIQ:
Even he, to whom most things that most people would think were pretty smart were pretty dumb, thought it was pretty smart.
Douglas Adams

TILT:
Chows have purple/black tongues and cannot swim.

Irrefutable Stupidity

Frankfurt researchers claim
staring at womens’ breasts
helps men to live longer.

I refer you to an article in The Smirking Chimp by Cenk Uygur, “The Irrefutable Stupidity of Sarah Palin.” Using excerpts from three of her interviews, Uygur points out that there is no conceivable way anyone could conclude Palin is anything but unbelievably stupid when it comes to even basic knowledge of the Middle East, her qualifications for the Presidency, or even for carrying on a knowledgeable conversation. I confess I have to agree with him, although I never believed she was anything but stupid in the first place. What I found amusing about this piece of Uygur’s was his obvious outrage and exasperation about the entire Palin phenomenon. He appeared to be almost in mental and physical pain when discussing McCain and Palin. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s true, Palin makes George W. Bush look intelligent.

And talk about irrefutable stupidity, think of Tiger Woods. I almost wanted to say “poor” Tiger Woods, because he is in such deep and probably unforgivable and never-to-be-forgotten trouble, and all because of his apparently insatiable lust. I can’t keep track of all the women, and I don’t know if all of them are telling the truth, but the count now seems to be somewhere between seven and ten. I heard today that his wife has, in fact, moved out. How could she not have? I mean one affair, maybe two, might be sufferable, but multiple affairs with so many different women? Obviously, she had no choice. I mean, a woman has to have at least some pride. And she is going to become very, very rich, which may not be enough to heal the terrible hurt she must feel. What is so unforgivably stupid about all this is that Tiger left emails and telephone records of his wrongdoing. You might think a Stanford graduate would have a better grasp on reality and modern technology, but apparently that knowledge didn’t rub off on Tiger. Perhaps he was just too busy practicing his golf game. Doesn’t it make you wonder, with all his “extracurricular” activities, when did he have time to practice? It is in a sense a genuine tragedy, the greatest golfer of all time, undone by his inability to keep his pant s on. I wonder how he will be greeted when he returns to the tour. Will he be greeted with masculine admiration as “macho man,” or jeered for being such an unmitigated cad. Only time will tell.

Well, it turns out that President Obama’s claim that we will be withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan in July of 2011 was just another misleading political move. It seems clear now, from what Hillary and Gates have been saying, there is no firm deadline for withdrawal. I knew this couldn’t be true because it doesn’t make sense from anything I know about what has been happening in the Middle East, and firm deadlines for “wars” are impossible to predict. I don’t know if Afghanistan is still properly considered “Pipelinestan” or not. If our presence there is not somehow related to oil and pipelines I cannot see the point in our being there at all. Afghanistan is not a threat to us. The Taliban are not a threat to us. And even al Quaida, realistically viewed, is not much of a threat to us. Surely Obama does not expect us to believe we are there to “spread democracy” or improve the status of women. Maybe he really believes we are there because we are so worried about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. If so, it seems to me what we are doing is increasing the chances of their falling into the wrong hands (as if nuclear arms were ever in the right hands of anyone to begin with).

Another example of what I think must be seen as irrefutable stupidity has to do with that good old example of unmitigated stupidity, Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma. They grow some strange Senators down there in Oklahoma. Inhofe is going, with two others of his non-global warming fantasies, to Copenhagen to prove to the world’s greatest scientists they are wrong and there is no global warming. It is, according to Inhofe, the second greatest myth in the world, next to the idea of the separation of church and state. Bon voyage, Inhofe, I wish you luck, when the men in the white coats come to take you away. Remember, you won’t be in the U.S., where at least some fellow nutcases might take you seriously. I really believe people should take the election of Senators a bit more seriously. I mean, one or two or perhaps a few more really stupid Representatives don’t make much of a difference, but even one stupid, egotistical, or loony Senator can cause a great deal of trouble. Perhaps, as some have suggested, we should just do away with the Senate.

LKBIQ:
The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois.
Gustave Flaubert

TILT:
Beef cheeks have now become a hot item in trendy restaurants.

Putin and the Rise of Russia - book

Putin and the Rise of Russia, by Michael Stuermer (Pegasus Books, 2009)

Michael Stuermer is a well-known and recognized authority on Russia and Germany. If you are interested in Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and today’s Russia this is an excellent and informative recent history that I recommend highly.

This is not a biography of Putin, but it does tell you how it is he came to power, what roles he had previously, and how he has managed to pull Russia back from the brink of nowhere to the position it has again now as one of the great powers. Above all, Putin is an ardent Russian nationalist who is trying to improve the lot of the Russian people and develop the Russian economy for the future.

Stuermer offers what I believe is truly a “fair and balanced” account of contemporary Russia. He discusses both its strengths and weaknesses. Putin’s success in bringing Russia back from near bankruptcy coincides with the rise in the price of oil and natural gas. Energy is now the main source of Russian wealth as they have lots of it and furnish most of Europe with power. Putin is wise enough to know that this cannot last forever and is trying to use these windfall funds to develop the Russian economy to be strong in other ways in the future. Along the way he has increased pensions for his citizens, began paying salaries regularly, and has, in general, improved the lives of Russians, thus achieving a relatively high level of popularity. After the failure of the Yeltsin attempt to introduce democracy, which degenerated into a wild contest to see who could grab the most and created vast fortunes for a few and left the majority far behind, Putin has been forced to create what has been described as an “authoritarian democracy.” The majority of Russians seem willing to accept this as they have been so eager for stability, although there are some, like the ex communists and a few others, who are opposed and have caused trouble from time to time. As Russian natural resources, especially in the energy field, are so vast, and international demand is so huge, there is no doubt that Russia will remain a powerful nation for a long time to come.

There are, however, genuine and serious problems facing Russia that Stuermer does not hesitate to discuss. They lag far behind the West in technology, for example, and although they have the natural resources they desperately need technological assistance. They also lag behind in health care and life expectancy. Far more importantly, they have a serious demographic problem with a birth rate among Russians that has been falling dramatically for years. This has led Putin to offer special financial incentives to Russians women to have more children. Related to this is the huge Muslim population that exists in Russian, especially to the South and East. The “wars” with the Chechen Republic are the best example of this, but the problem is much greater due to the large and expanding Muslim population in general that threatens the ethnic Russian population. Unlike the European problem with Muslims, those in Russia are not immigrants, but have lived there for centuries. The sheer size of Russia is itself a potential problem. We think of the U.S. as a large country with our three time zones, Russia has eleven! And in the east and southeast there is China with its huge population sitting near the Siberian border which protects huge tracts of relatively undeveloped territory.

Not only does Putin have to deal with the abovementioned problems, there is also the question of his relationship with his protégé, President Dmitri Mededved. When Putin announced Mededved as his successor to the Presidency there were obvious misgivings about how power might be shared between the two, although in general the Russian people seemed to think this was a fine choice. So far there seems to be no particular problems with this arrangement, but of course there is always the potential, and it is not clear whether Putin intends to reclaim the Presidency in the future. And there still remain the remnants of the communists that are not on board Putin’s version of democracy. How ruthless Putin has had to be to attain and hold on to his power is largely a matter of speculation, but there is no doubt about his determination to re-establish Mother Russia as a world power.

There is no mention of it at all in Stuermer’s fine account, but I would love to know what Vladimir Putin, who is fluent in four languages, educated by the KGB, and involved in Russian, European, and International politics since a very early age, thought of the marginally retarded George W. Bush who claimed to look into his eyes and,” saw his soul,” and then called him “Pootie-Poot.” Indeed, I would like to know what he thinks of a country that would elect such a person in the first place.

In any case this is a fine book that I hope will be widely read, especially by members of our Congress (if any of them actually do read).

Public Option be Damned

Woman fails to trick
husband’s mistress into
having an abortion.

Public option be damned. Let’s have real health care reform. Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, and Roland Burris have offered an amendment that would provide medicare for all. No one believes this amendment has a chance of survival. But why should it not? It is the most perfect solution to our dysfunctional health care system there is. It would provide a single payer system that would be less expensive, more comprehensive, simpler, efficient, and would solve the problem. You might think that in a so-called “civilized” society, leaders would jump at the chance to offer health care to all the citizens. Indeed, all other industrialized societies do. The U.S. is the only one left that does not offer universal health care in one form or another. Why is this? Because too many people, including most of our “leaders,” believe in free market capitalism. This means that private enterprise should be able to provide health care for a profit. But providing health care for profit is actually inconsistent with the goal of providing health care, because the way you make a profit is by not providing health care to those who need it most.

We seem to be unable to comprehend there are some things that are just too important to be left to the private for-profit system. Truly basic human needs, for example, are trampled under such a system. We have seen what happens when energy, for example, is left to the private sector, as in the California energy disaster. Corporate farming is another example of how private enterprise is destroying our soils and poisoning our environment. And the attempt to reform health care is an attempt to do away with the privatization of health care. If these privatization nitwits had their way they would try to privatize water (they have in some places) and no doubt if successful with that would try to privatize the air we breathe. As I have said previously, let them have private enterprise when it comes to things like cosmetics and fashion and other areas where human lives and happiness are not at risk. We should have begun with promoting medicare for all, and not merely have assumed that it could not pass. If our Democratically controlled House and Senate, and the White House wanted to do it, they could pass it now, solve the problem, and be done with all the debate and hassle and lies and nonsense that has surrounded the effort to reform health care. And we would have universal health care that would work for all, not just Insurance companies who have no business whatsoever meddling in health care in the first place. As far as I know the only benefit we enjoy from having Insurance companies involved in health care at the moment is that we do have some form of health care, although horribly flawed and in many cases useless. There is no need for this, none, nada, zip, zero. The goal should have been from the very beginning to get rid of the Insurance industries involvement in health care completely, and switch to a single-payer system like all sensible people do. We seem to have devolved from the brilliant minds that gave us our constitution into a bunch of dithering idiots who have lost sight of any interest in the common good. As I do not believe this has a genetic base, it has to do with a failure of culture. That is, somehow we have failed to produce and transmit the extra-genetic knowledge required to maintain a system that functions for all its members. This failure has been encouraged by the corporate powers and wealthy interests (including the MSM) that have successfully “dumbed us down” for years. Our “wise men” are now fewer than they were and are not listened to in any case. Thus for those in charge, there is no global warming, no damage to the environment, no problem with health care, energy, poverty, the “war” on drugs, or endless “wars,” no problem with our beautiful “democratic” government, everything is fine (unless it might be shown that it interferes with short-term profits). Why even worry about the future, Armageddon is right around the corner, we might as well rape and plunder at will. Like one of our local bumper stickers proclaims, “After we’ve logged this one we’ll move on to the next planet.” Or how about, “Hungry and out of work, eat an environmentalist.” My all-time favorite that I saw just at the beginning of the Iraq “war,” “Nuke their ass and steal their gas.” Of course one of the most popular recent ones is just plain “Sarah.” We have a lot of really profound thinkers around here. You could hear them a lot easier if it weren’t for those damn black helicopters coming down from Canada to steal our lawn chairs. Sigh.

in these high mountains
icy rivers run wildly
nothing contains them
they rage mindlessly
as the hot blood of lovers
Morialekafa

Pre-Nups, Nups, and Post-Nups

Man arrested at airport
with baked chicken…
stuffed with cocaine.

Quite a long time ago I knew a young man who was married to an unusually attractive Asian woman. One afternoon, during a cocktail party, he began quite an affectionate public demonstration of his feelings, kissing her on the neck and such. Like many people who learned English only later in life, she was articulate enough but also, shall we say, somewhat creative in her use of our language. Slightly, but not terribly embarrassed, she announced loud enough for all to hear, “George (not his real name to protect his innocence), you’re “lewding.” George replied, “No, I’m pre-lewding.” This led to some idle banter and some speculation about the actual lewding that might occur later, and the inevitable post-lewding that would follow that.

I was led to recall this amusing event by the news that Tiger Woods is involved in what is described as re-negotiating his pre-nuptial agreement. This is not, however, about Tiger Woods and his wife, per se, but, rather about the phenomena of pre-nuptial agreements and such. As far as I am concerned, wealthy and famous athletes have sex. Some of them, perhaps most of them, have lots of it. Some of them boast about it, like Wilt Chamberlin or Magic Johnson, and some of them, like Tiger, keep it quiet. Given their fame, wealth, and life styles, this would seem almost inevitable. To think this doesn’t happen is naïve. But I confess that pre-nuptial agreements are mostly an unknown practice for me. Although I have been married more than once or twice, my experience has never involved pre-nuptial agreements. If it had it would probably have been not much more than a discussion of who might get the toaster, the typewriter (remember those), or the debts. This does not prevent me from being interested in the subject.

I have seen in various places the claim that Tiger’s wife had a pre-nuptial agreement that she would receive 10 million after a certain amount of time in the event of a divorce. I have also seen the claim that the pre-nuptial agreement was actually 300 million. I have no idea if any of this is true. For purposes here it doesn’t matter what the figures were or are. Now, because of Tiger’s indiscretions, and the embarrassment involved, it is being said the pre-nuptial agreement is being re-negotiated. At least one claim is, his wife is to receive a 5 million dollar amount immediately, and perhaps as much as 80 million to stay with him for x number of years. I have no idea if this is true. The idea behind this kind of settlement has apparently to do with the belief that if his marriage is “saved,” his “image” will also be saved, and his multi-million dollar sponsors will not withdraw their sponsorships (and he will continue to get his huge sums for representing their companies). This makes sense. His wife, apparently, is to continue to live with him (I gather) and appear with him in public, and (I guess) at least pretend that everything is okay with their marriage.

So Tiger and his wife have had their pre-nuptial agreement, and now they have had for a few years, their nuptials, and now there are negotiating what I think must be more properly termed their post-nuptial agreement. I find this fascinating and I would love to be privy to what this agreement consist of, other than that they will continue to present themselves as husband and wife. Does this agreement consist, for example, of continued “consortium?” Are they to sleep in the same bed, perhaps different bedrooms, maybe even different houses? Is she to attend all important social events, or can she pick and choose? Does she have to smile and appear happy at all times? What if she has a “bad hair day” and doesn’t want to attend some function? Now that she will have her own fortune, will she be responsible for buying her own gowns and such, or does she continue to get a clothing allowance? Of course there is the more important question of what happens to the children. We can probably safely assume they will continue joint custody. How about pets? I can see how these things can get really complicated. In this specific case, I don’t even want to know the details, I just find the questions of interest.

I had much the same curiosity when Jackie Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis. I assumed this was not a marriage based on love or passion, but, rather, a pragmatic financial agreement, whereby she would be his wife in name, appear with him in public, and so on. But did she have to agree to only so many weeks a year on the yacht? In addition to the fortune he gave her, did he also buy her clothes, give money to her children, and stuff like that? Did she have to agree in advance to eat unborn lamb (aaagh).

I find this practice to be of considerable interest, as you can see. I have known of a few cases of “marriages of convenience,” where two people agree to pose as husband and wife, sometimes when one of the partners was homosexual, and sometimes when there was a great difference in age and financial well-being. It might be unfair, but I thought that in at least a couple of these cases the woman was reduced to little more than the status of a “pet.” But unlike being an animal pet, these human pets can negotiate the level of their affection as well as their duties (at least up to a point). But what do I know? These arrangements are as foreign to me as life on another planet. Happily, I don’t have to take my toaster and go home to mother.

There is here, I think, an interesting question of prostitution. That is, if a person agrees to one of these financial arrangements, if it doesn’t involve actually selling your body for sex, does it still amount to prostitution? If your answer is yes, then it would appear to me that capitalism itself is little more than a huge brothel, in which people sell their labor, politicians sell their votes, and some people sell their sex. This idea requires much more thought than I have given it up until now.

LKBIQ:
Marriage: a book of which the first chapter is written in poetry and the remaining chapters in prose.
Beverly Nichols

TILT:
Folk musicians call a person who plays the harp, a harper, whereas classical musicians call them harpists.

Does Anyone Know Anything?

Man arrested for groping
nurse’s breast, forced to miss
girlfriend’s birth of his child.

I have been forced to come to the conclusion that many of our problems stem from the fact that most of our elected and appointed governmental officials simply do not know what they are talking about. I strongly suspect that they rarely, if ever, even bother to read the bills and such they are required to vote for or against. They certainly did not read the Patriot Act before they eagerly passed it. And I seriously doubt that any of them have read the Health Care Bill. Or, if they do read them, they don’t reflect on the consequences of voting one way or another. A minor case in point is the recent bill introduced by Al Franken that would have given some protection to rape victims. Thirty Republicans voted against this bill, thus leading many to say they voted for rape. They are now outraged about this and accuse Franken of pulling a fast one to embarrass them. It seems they either did not read the bill in the first place, or if they did, they failed to realize the obvious consequences of their votes. At the least this would seem to indicate a lack of interest in what they are doing. This inattention to the bills and their implications probably has something to do with the fact that whichever party is promoting a bill quite likely doesn’t even want the opposition to read it, because if they did there would be so many objections, qualifications, amendments, arguments, and so on, nothing would ever get passed. So they write the bills behind closed doors, present them at the last minute, and insist on a quick vote. This can hardly be said to represent good government, it is more like a bunch of clowns trying to one-up each other.

Similarly, it seems to me our officials do not know nearly as much as they claim to know, or if they do, they do not tell the rest of us. Now we learn that the head of Blackwater has also been for years a CIA operative, involved in who knows what all clandestine activities, including apparently death squads. Frankly, I don’t know if this surprises me or not. The case of bin Laden continues to fascinate me in much the same way. An official of the Pakistan government has recently claimed that bin Laden is not in Pakistan (contrary to what we have been led to believe). Indeed, others claim bin Laden probably is not even alive, and still others doubt that he is living in a cave somewhere. So, do we know where bin Laden is or not? He has apparently not been seen for a long time. He was said to have been on a dialysis machine. He could well be dead. Does anyone really know? Dead or alive he certainly keeps giving us an excuse to attack Afghans, killing lots of civilians in the process. Indeed, if there was no bin Laden there would have been little excuse for our attacking Afghanistan in the first place, and his continued presence there keeps on giving even now. This is amazing, given that we don’t seem to know whether he is there or not, whether he is alive or dead, or where he actually is if he is somewhere. It is claimed that we had him trapped in Afghanistan and (deliberately?) let him escape. Bin Laden is known to have been a CIA asset during the Russian “war” in Afghanistan. Could it be he is still a CIA asset? Obviously, I don’t know. But on the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised. If anyone in our government truly knows, they aren’t telling. In fact, the situation with respect to what we are being told leads me to suspect that what is going on in the world has nothing whatsoever to do with what we try to think is going on. Does our stubborn clinging to the “war” in Afghanistan have anything to do with the pipeline the oil companies want to go through there thus bypassing Russia? If it is, why don’t they just admit it. Why don’t they just say, we need a pipeline through Afghanistan to bypass Russia because we desperately need access to oil from inner Asia, instead of feeding us nonsense about spreading democracy and all that bunk? It is pretty clear to me by now that our officials believe, as Hitler did, that citizens just don’t think. Unfortunately, that seems largely true here in the U.S. But even if we did think, and had attention spans longer than that of a fruit fly, how could we ever come to any reasonable conclusions when we are forced to start from dishonest premises? I do not believe we are being told the truth about much of anything. Is it any wonder that our Congress acts independently of the public interest? It is not at all clear that most of them know any more than we do, but presumably, if that is true, they are not doing their jobs as they, at least, are supposed to know something, even if we are not.

See Sarah
See silly Sarah
See silly sophomoric Sarah
See silly sophomoric Sarah sink scurrilously
Selling souvenirs, successfully scrounging stupid supporters,
Slowly, steadily, slovenly, saccharinely, sanctimoniously, sadistically,
Slothfully, shooting salaciously salient sanguinary salutations sassily,
Sans savoir faire.

I apologize, just playing. Mori.

Second Thoughts

Told to move out, she
sprays boyfriend with mace
and sets his porch on fire.

Of course Lietta, borrow what you wish.

I am having second thoughts about President Obama’s disgraceful speech of last night. I am not only still disgusted, I am now angry. Apparently taking a page out of the Bush/Cheney instruction booklet for feeding the public nothing but crap, Obama also seems to accept their belief that the American public is completely bereft of either brains or intelligence. He wants us to believe he is accelerating the hostilities in Afghanistan in order to facilitate withdrawal, and he expects to start the withdrawal in somewhere around 18 months, except that he might not do that, ”depending upon circumstances on the ground” (where have we heard that before). In other words, he wants it both ways: placate the right-wing by accelerating this ridiculous “war,” and placating the left by claiming he is going to withdraw (but he might not). This is nothing but more Bush/Cheney obfuscation and gobbledygook, meaningless nonsense that will allow him to maintain the permanent “war” the military/industrial/political complex demands, to say nothing of the hope for Cheney’s pipeline to bypass Russia.

We had better start thinking very carefully about what is most probably the destruction of our country as we have known it for so long. We are potentially in big, big trouble. Consider that Obama has now almost guaranteed himself a one term Presidency. Much of his base is already eroding and Independents are not happy with him either. But think of the horrors that might ensue if he does lose the coming election in 2012. Who would replace him, Republicans? Republicans whose idea of a Presidential candidate is Sarah Palin, Lou Dobbs, Dick Cheney, any one of a bunch of known adulterers, Mike Huckabee, Glenn Beck, Bobby Jindal, Jeb Bush, or at best perhaps, Mitt Romney, the Lying Mormon. This, I think, is not funny. Even if the Democrats were to run someone other than Obama, their dismal failure at trying to pass health care, ending the “wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan, pulling the country out of a jobless recession (at least so far), and their failure to act in unison on most anything, would hardly recommend them for another term in power. We are almost certainly going to find ourselves in the position of having two virtually hopeless political parties, neither of which seems to have any interest whatsoever in actually governing, the good of our country, or the well being of our citizens, criminally in debt, harboring our war criminals, lacking in transparency, unable, even uninterested in governing, completely subservient to the demands of huge corporations interested only in quick profits and buying votes, and hopelessly mired in mindless partisanship (mostly for show, when not simply out of unbelievable ignorance), hardly a bright future.

If ever there was an opportunity for a serious third party, this is it. It could be called, simply enough, The “Reform Party,” and could attempt to pull together those few Congresspersons and Senators that appear to have a serious interest in running the country and looking out for the well being of its citizens, rather than merely getting themselves re-elected time after time. With a strong cadre of known serious-minded individuals with some experience in government, they could reach out for all of the disaffected Obama supporters and independents who are currently being betrayed by what has turned out to be mistaking charm and rhetoric for substance. I am loathe to write Obama off completely, although I am more and more being pushed in that direction by some of the things he is doing (or not doing). If, for example, health care is passed with a strong public option, and if the jobless rate declines, and if the economy picks up, and if things go passably well in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Democrats might manage to stay in charge for a long time to come (a whole lot of really big “ifs”). That all of these positive things might happen seems unlikely. Obviously Obama cannot be blamed for everything, he did inherit an impossible world, and he does have a dysfunctional Democratic controlled Congress, but I do have to believe this terrible mistake about Afghanistan is mostly his, and I do believe it is indeed a mistake. It seems to be predicated on what I believe is a distorted view of the Afghans, the relationship of the Taliban to al Qaida and Pakistan, who the enemy actually is, what the importance of the threat really is, the efficacy of military might, and a perverted view of what ought to be our priorities. I tremble at the thought of what another Republican administration might do and I always try, at least, to hope for the best (it is becoming more and more difficult as time goes by).

LKBIQ:
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.
Sir Winston Churchill

TILT:
In the game of draughts (checkers in America), if no player ever makes a mistake, the game will always end in a draw.

The Afghan Speech

Former Argentine beauty queen dies
from plastic surgery, friend says she
“wanted to have a slightly firmer ass.”

I have just listened to President Obama’ speech about Afghanistan. I did not turn on the TV early as I did not want to hear what all the newspeople were going to say about what they thought he might say, or what might or might not have been leaked, and so on. Similarly, when the speech was over, I turned off the TV because I did not want to be told over and over again what he just said (or their particular interpretations of what he just said). So the following comments are strictly my own.

I thought it was a terrible speech. In fact, I found is so excruciatingly awful and embarrassing I had to fight myself to keep from turning it off. The speech had a weird kind of fairy tale quality about it, as if President Obama had swallowed some strange kool-aid, or had been smoking something he shouldn’t have. First of all, he seemed to accept the idea that it was necessary to start a “war” to deal with what was/is in reality just a small band of international criminals. The “war” was hardly a war of necessity, contrary to what Obama seems to believe. Even now there aren’t many al Quaida. He also seems to accept the idea that the attack of 9/11 was somehow planned by al Qaida in Afghanistan, whereas it was also planned in Berlin and the United States (and further attacks could be planned from virtually anywhere on earth). He also didn’t bother to mention that the attackers were all Saudi Arabians, not Afghans. Nor did he bother to mention that the Taliban do not represent all of Afghanistan, but are, in fact, a minority of that population. Nor did he mention that the Taliban are our “enemies” now only because they want us out of their country, nor are they a threat to the world in any way (they may be a slight threat to Pakistan, but remember Pakistan helped them in Afghanistan because they were bringing stability to that country). To say that al Quaida or the Taliban are a threat to world security is a terrible exaggeration. Al Quaida might be a terrorist threat around the world, the Taliban are surely not. He also did not mention there are in reality only a small number of al Quaida, mostly now in Pakistan, and cannot be a terrible threat to the U.S. or anywhere else. Their chances of getting their hands on a nuclear weapon are very remote, and their chances of mailing it or smuggling it into the U.S. is even more remote (and probably not even possible). Thus his insistence that what is happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a dangerous threat to the world is little more than the same old fear mongering we have come to expect from the Bush/Cheney years.

His claim that we are going to train an efficient Afghan army and (maybe, perhaps, possibly) leave Afghanistan after 18 months (or whatever) is no more than pie in the sky. First of all, Afghanistan is not truly a “country” in any ordinary meaning of that term. It is a huge collection of tribes and clans that have managed their own affairs and their own territories for more than a thousand years. It is unlikely there will ever be an Afghan army representing the entire country as there are few Afghans that proclaim loyalty to a nation rather than to their tribe or clan, and, as only about 10% of the country is literate that also creates a problem in trying to establish a viable military organization (to say nothing of the fact they probably couldn’t afford it). It is also not very accurate to describe Afghanistan as a country that has constantly been in turmoil and fighting and unable to survive without outside help. It is the outside meddling of Britain, Russia, and now the U.S. that has caused all the turmoil and strife, not the inability of the Afghans to manage their own affairs (which, left on their own they will no doubt do fairly well, including taking care of the Taliban problem). There is a form of stability in a tribal and clan-based society, whereas tribes and clans join and separate depending upon the particular enemies or problems they face. They are mostly joined now in a common effort to rid themselves of foreigners who are occupying their country. The U.S. wants greater stability only because we want to build a pipeline through their country, bypassing Russia, something else Obama neglected to mention. If he mentioned Osama bin Laden at all I have already forgotten it.

There were other things about the speech that I thought were mostly rhetorical. For example, we do not want to occupy their country (we only want to have bases there to protect our interests). The U.S. does not seek hegemony (empire) over the world (that is why we have some 1000 bases all around the world). The U.S. has fought for freedom and liberty for others everywhere (as long as they have oil or something else we want). We have been the world’s policeman for sixty years (only when it suits our interest). We are withdrawing from Iraq (maybe) because we will leave them with a viable and democratic government (highly questionable). I found the entire speech to be little more than one fairytale after another, with the same underlying themes of the “white man’s burden,” American exceptionalism and benign motives, that you might have expected from Bush/Cheney, St. Ronnie, or even Teddy Roosevelt. To me, at least, it was a terrible disappointment. Let’s see how it plays out with the neocons and others.

I do not believe that sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan is, in fact, “vital to American interests.” What is vital to American interests is to get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible, get out of Iraq as soon as possible, and let them manage their own affairs, while we attempt to manage our own here at home (if we are even able to do that any longer). If the Afghans or Iraqis ask us for help for specific problems, we should be seriously obliged to try to accommodate them as best we can. But, you say, what about all that oil? How much oil do you think we could have bought from them for a trillion or more dollars, all the while helping them improve their economies?

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Rudyard Kipling

Rope-a-Dope Continues

Man with “glazed eyes,”
“walking like Frankenstein,”
smashes store’s TVs with hammer.

Osama bin Laden’s “rope-a-dope” strategy continues to work. He must have studied at the feet of Muhammed Ali, the originator of this procedure. You remember that in Ali’s case, he allowed George Foreman to pound away at him on the ropes until Foreman exhausted himself, and then attacked and won the fight. Osama seems to have adapted this to the broader international scene through the use of economics rather than fists. You will recall that Osama made it clear that at least one of his goals was to provoke the U.S. into fighting terrorism long enough to bankrupt itself. He has been enormously successful, far more successful than even he could have dreamed. Imagine his pleasure as he saw us enter Afghanistan and start a “war” to find him. And his glee must have been overwhelming when Bush began the even bigger “war” in Iraq. You might have thought that a smart Chicago politician would have figured this out by now, but President Barack O’Bonehead has decided to keep pummeling away with another 30 or more billion of wasted funds, and 30,000 or so more troops (neither of which he can afford) and will apparently never stop until we are, at last, officially bankrupt. This may be unfair of me, as Obama has not yet given his speech in which he is to explain his strategy and (presumably) claim some sort of exit from Afghanistan. I am not sanguine about his possibilities as he is yet to exit Iraq or Guantanamo, and I strongly suspect that what he wishes to accomplish in Afghanistan is quite likely impossible. That is, if he thinks he is going to reform Karzai and Afghan corruption, create a large and efficient Afghan army (that would require a budget larger than the national income), and leave the country able to manage its own affairs in some form of democratic way without spending the next century, I think he is daydreaming. Actually, I suspect these are not really the goals he has in mind. It is more likely we are still planning to somehow build Cheney’s pipeline to avoid Russia, but this is no longer mentioned in public.

And speaking of Cheney, what I have always feared would happen is happening. Or perhaps I should say what should happen is not happening. Dick Cheney (aka Dick the Slimy) is a known, even admitted, war criminal, along with his former Presidential puppet, George W. Bush. There is no doubt about this. The world knows it, and I cannot believe that President Obama and the Attorney General are not aware of it. They do seem to be unaware that our constitution and laws demand that war criminals be prosecuted (I don’t believe they are unaware of this either). Cheney himself, who has to realize he is vulnerable, has cleverly embarked on a strategy that pits him politically against the Obama administration with respect to Afghanistan (and most everything else). This should not really spare him prosecution, but it does allow him (and his insane supporters) to claim that if he is prosecuted it would be for purely political reasons (there is nothing political about it, it’s about war crimes). This does make it awkward for Obama and Holder, but it should not really prevent justice from being done. Their excuse for ignoring the law about prosecuting war criminals, up until now at least, is that they are too busy trying to save our country from bankruptcy, health care reform, global warming, and, I guess, the cookie monster. This latest escalation of troops for Afghanistan may render all of these reasons moot, as Osama bin Laden may finally realize his dream of having bankrupted us (at the very least this may kill any attempt at health care reform, as it is obviously more important to fund a fake and unnecessary “war” for no purpose than to provide health care for American citizens). Perhaps should this happen, Obama might turn his attention to what should have been a priority in the first place, demonstrating to the world that we do not coddle war criminals, even when they are our own. Don’t hold your breath.

And what of Tiger Woods? No one really knows. I think he was fighting with his wife about a rumored affair, she chased and hit him with a golf club, followed his car with the club as he tried to leave, broke out the back window and then, realizing she had caused the crash, was overcome with remorse and helped him out of the wreck. Do I know this to be true. Of course not, but what does that have anything to do with the “news?” For all I know President Obama called him and said, “Tiger, old buddy, do something dramatic to take over the news for a few days, people aren’t going to like my escalation in Afghanistan.” Or perhaps Tiger was so euphoric over becoming the first athlete to make a billion dollars he thought he could drive with no hands and without looking. Maybe he was trying to reach the beach so he could practice walking on water. He might have had a date with his (probably imaginary) “mistress.” Who knows, who cares, case closed, play golf, guys fight with their wives all the time.

LKBIQ:
Justice delayed, is justice denied.
William Gladstone

TILT:
Dubai’s tallest freestanding building, Burj Dubai, at 2,684 feet, is the tallest man-made building ever built on planet earth.

The Indifferent Stars Above - book

The Indifferent Stars Above The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride, by Daniel James Brown (William Morrow, 2009).

And they had nailed the boards above her face,
The peasants of that land,
Wondering to lay her in that solitude,
And raised above her mound
A cross they had made out of two bits of wood,
And planted cypress round;
And left her to the indifferent stars above.

W. B. Yeats,
“A Dream of Death”

Daniel James Brown could probably not have found a better poem to introduce this book about the experiences of Sarah Graves, a new bride, with the ill-fated Donner party tragedy of the 1840’s. I think it also makes for an exceptionally fine title for a description of human suffering almost beyond belief.

This book goes far beyond previous accounts of the Donner party horrors. Brown followed the known route of Sarah and the other ill-fated pioneers all the way from their starting point in Illinois to the Sacramento valley where a few survivors stumbled to safety after their weeks of snow-bound captivity and starvation in the high mountain pass. With his knowledge of the terrain and climate, and using the surviving diary entries and sparse records, he attempts to describe their daily movements, what they ate (or did not have to eat), how they managed to survive or failed to survive the bitter cold, frostbite, snowblindness, and their ravaging hunger, and, finally, the desperate cannibalism. What makes this book virtually unique is the author’s use of the most recent scientific research on nutrition, physiology, psychology, chemistry, and survival, to attempt to describe the actual physiological and psychological changes that must have affected them as they tried to live on the sparse foodstuffs that were available to them, and how these changes may have influenced even their interpersonal relations. They ate the flesh of horses, mules, dogs, boiled and chewed on hides and leather, and went for periods of time with nothing at all, until finally succumbing to the tabooed cannibalism where they sought nourishment from the lean flesh of those who perished during this terrible sojourn. Try to imagine, if you will, Sarah’s father instructing her to eat his flesh to survive, or Sarah having to watch as her few remaining peers consumed the flesh of her deceased husband. We know that one of Sarah’s younger sisters, upon learning she had survived by eating her mother’s flesh, was so obsessed with guilt she never fully recovered. Of course all of the survivors suffered their own private anguish over what they had done, but some of them went on to live reasonably normal and productive lives. Sarah, for example, recovered and eventually remarried and had children, as did a few of the other women. We cannot know for certain how accurate Brown’s speculations about their condition are, but they seem convincing and are well presented. He offers some ideas about the interesting fact that most of the survivors were female rather than male. I was not entirely convinced by his explanation for some of the cannibalism but this did not keep me from being impressed with his work.

Although Brown chose to focus on Sarah Graves this seems more an attempt to hold the story together than to offer a biographical sketch of just one woman. He describes many of the characters involved, as well as some of their squabbles and fights, both before and after their terrible time on the mountain. It is clear there were at least two murders directly related to the cannibalism, there may have been more, and there were others unrelated to cannibalism. No one was charged and at least one of the offenders went on to become wealthy and successful in California. This is an ambitious and fascinating account of one of history’s greatest and most grisly affairs. It is well conceived, well written, and well worth reading. From the dust jacket:

“One by one, feathery flakes landed on cold blankets and buffalo robes, on sweat-slicked hair, on shoulders turned to the sky, on soft cheeks – each flake delicate and slight, but each lending its almost imperceptible weight to the horror of what was about to happen….”

What is Absurd?

What happens in nutty putty cave
stays in nutty putty cave. Body
of spelunker to remain there.

What is absurd? I ask this because I so often see this word used in various contexts, and I know that I myself use it, and perhaps abuse it. Consulting the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary I learn that the two primary meanings are:

1. Ridiculously unreasonable, unsound, or incongruous
2. Having no rational or orderly relationship to human life

Now you might think with such clear-cut standards it should be simple to agree on things that are absurd. But nothing in human affairs is simple. The claim of absurdity, as we currently use it, is basically just the opinion of an individual. What may or may not be absurd cross-culturally is a problem far beyond the scope of this present document. Here I am interested only in what I take to be the absurdities of American culture. Indeed, I tend to believe that American culture in general is nothing less than a culture of the absurd (obviously not everyone will agree).

What brought this to mind today was another trip to the supermarket. We have only one such market here in our little town, and by big city standards it is really quite a modest supermarket. Nonetheless, when I ran an errand there for my wife I became aware for the first time of the cat food aisle. Yes, there is an entire aisle devoted to cat food. It measures roughly sixty feet long by seven feet tall, and contains kitty litter, cat food, cat toys, and such. Now, I don’t mind cats, indeed I put up with five of them on a daily basis (a result of my wife’s home for wayward cats). But does anyone truly need such a variety of cat foods and litters and toys? I doubt very much that the cats themselves appreciate this variety, if they even think about it. Thus, I believe this is absurd. And across the aisle there is a similar, even longer row of dog food and stuff for dogs. I think this is also absurd. Then when I think of all the starving people in the world, and even here in the U.S., I think it is even more absurd. I would say this is “ridiculously unreasonable,” if not “unsound.” It may or may not be “incongruous,” depending upon your opinion of American culture in general. As I previously commented along these same lines about the huge bin of frozen prepared potatoes, I will leave the subject of American food (a truly absurd subject) for the moment.

Consider the American use of the automobile, pickup truck, motorcycle, snowmobile, all-terrain vehicle, and personal watercraft, all the result of the invention of the internal combustion engine. While there are obvious advantages of one sort or another for such vehicles in certain circumstances, our present-day use of most of these is absurd. The idea that virtually every individual in the country needs their own automobile or pickup truck is absurd, or that is, ought to be absurd. Snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, and personal watercraft may be “fun” as “toys,” but they are terribly polluting, noisy, and destructive of the environment, and as such are, I would say, “ridiculously unreasonable.” And here, where I live, the love affair with pickup trucks is truly a thing of wonder. It is not at all unusual to see women (and sometimes men) doing their supermarket shopping in huge Ford 350, Chevrolet 3500, or Dodge 3500 models, far in excess of just the ordinary pickup. Not long ago I watched in awe as an older, gray-haired lady left her big Dodge running while she entered the supermarket and emerged with a case of beer. There are also many dual wheeled pickups that more than 90% of the time contain nothing whatsoever except a dog. While all of these vehicles might be useful at certain times for certain things, I submit than in general the use of such vehicles in the U.S. is absurd (almost beyond belief).

One further rant while I’m on the subject of the absurd has to do with the use of energy in the U.S. The example of vehicular use as above involves an enormous waste of energy. But that is probably mild compared to our waste of electricity. We are now being told we should conserve energy, and most people probably believe we should. But hardly anyone does. Drive through any city at night and you will observe most if not all of the lights on in every large building left on all night long. And it is not only in large buildings you can observe this obvious waste, it seems like every small business has to leave lights on as well. In most homes it appears to me that the inhabitants rarely turn off lights that are not in use. Sometimes I believe most Americans, especially younger ones, are not even aware that light switches have an “off” as well as an “on.”

Anyway, as long as there is no agreed upon standard for measuring what is absurd and what is not, it seems to me unlikely that people in general are going to ever solve their common problems, or even define what they are. If culture is pretty much a unique human invention for meeting the basic needs of the species for food, shelter, security, health, etc., we have long since passed over the basic needs and elaborated to the point of madness. Absurdity has long since triumphed over practical reality. I do not think it entirely far-fetched to predict it will ultimately lead to doomsday.

LKBIQ:
If you see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture than you are a victim of it.
S. I. Hayakawa

TILT:
The average weasel weighs about 7 ounces.

No One is Responsible

Two bank robbers die
overestimating the amount
of dynamite required.

Many infants being born in Fallujah now are being born with unbelievable grotesque features, apparently no head, two heads, a single eye, scaly skin, or other monstrous deformities. This is a situation 15 times greater than ever before. It is not hard to find the fundamental reason for this outrageous crime. It is the result of ecocide. Ecocide is a relatively new word that refers to the destruction of large portions of the environment, especially because of man-made activities. The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, for example, but in the case of Fallujah it is more likely the result of the use of chemicals in warfare, like white phosphorous and depleted uranium used for anti tank and other ammunition. Of course there are some (those most responsible for this outrage) that will argue there is no proof of the connection between birth defects and the use of these chemicals (just as there was no proof of the connection between Agent Orange and the problems of Vietnam veterans for some time). This way of thinking (in the U.S.) has always struck me as truly peculiar because it seems to imply that human life, health, and welfare are basically less important than corporate profits. Recall all the denials with respect to tobacco and lung cancer. There was a known correlation between smoking and lung cancer, but the industry argued fairly successfully for years there was no specific proof of a connection and went on marketing their poisonous product anyway. I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me that in most cultures, even relatively “simple” ones, when something is suspected of possibly doing harm to people, especially children, they stop using it until they find out otherwise. This is quite the opposite of what we do here in the good ol’ USA, where absolute proof seems to be necessary before any action can be taken. This is precisely what has been going on with respect to the use of chemicals in our military. As there is no absolute proof of a connection between the use of depleted uranium and human deformities, we just blissfully go on using them (of course we only use them on “others” we have dehumanized who are therefore less important than we are). This goes along with the apparent belief on the part of many that the life of an American fetus is absolutely sacred, whereas the lives of millions of “others” are not. I guess you can also see this reflected in our failure to sign the international ban on the use of landmines. Everyone knows that landmines kill innocent civilians, especially children, for years and years after they have been planted. But what do we care, we don’t plant them here at home. It makes me wonder at times if our “leaders” are actually human beings, or perhaps some kind of “ghouls” artificially created by the Pentagon. There seems to be nothing that can stand in the way of our doing what we want (to others). I will never forget Madeleine Albright’s absolutely outrageous and inhuman response when asked if the loss of half a million Iraqi children was “worth it,” and she replied that it was! What I find most shocking of all about this Fallujah problem, is that no one seems to be considered responsible for it. An entire city destroyed and the survivors plagued with a monstrous ongoing problem and no one is considered responsible? I guess it was “just an act of war,” roughly equivalent to the act of shaving every morning.

The word ecocide actually occurs in my dictionary (Webster’s). I don’t know why this surprised me, but it did. I guess I was surprised because ecocide, as far as I know, did not occur with much regularity until a relatively short time ago (even the word ecology, although it existed, did not really come into vogue until fairly recently). The word “humanicide” has not yet made it into the dictionary, although you can find it on google, where it refers mainly to a band by that name. I have suggested previously (Morialekafa 8-26-04) that it ought to have another meaning, but so far this has not been accepted by anyone. In any case, I think it is a sad commentary on the state of the world when words like ecocide and humanicide have to come to mind at all.

Pity poor Dubai! They have had to ask for more time to pay off an 80 billion dollar debt. I feel so sorry for them, sitting there with their artificial ski mountain in the desert, their artificial palm island covered with expensive high-rise (empty) buildings, their expensive condominiums worth half or less of what was paid for them, their upscale shops that no one can afford any longer, people abandoning their cars at the airport trying to flee the country, and so on. Is this not the perfect example of capitalism and conspicuous consumption gone berserk? I suggest they move all those foreign workers they lured there and exploited so shamelessly into all those vacant condos and give them a real taste of the “high life.” Someone should write a history of Dubai (if they haven’t already). They could call it “The Completely Disgusting History of the Rise of Dubai and Its Predictable Collapse Into the Desert Sands.”

LKBIQ:
The ability to understand a question from all sides meant one was totally unfit for action. Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of the real man.
Thucydides

TILT:
J. R. R. Tolkien disdained automobiles and thought the internal combustion engine was a terrible invention.

Dumber than Dumb

On way to his wedding,
groom crashes rented
$415,000 Lamborghini.

How dumb is it possible to be and still pass yourself off as a candidate for office? Silly Sarah has now advised Canada to scrap their health care system and privatize it. She has said the best way to create jobs is to lower taxes. She has also said Obama should just follow the advice of his generals. And she has also said that Obama does not appreciate the sacrifices of our troops. She also apparently believes that Israel is a special place that will soon fill up with Jews, thus making possible the Rapture. She apparently does not believe in evolution, abortion, or global warming. For all intents and purposes she does not read much of anything. A majority of Americans think she is not qualified to be President (and was not qualified to be Vice-President), but she has not ruled out running for President in 2012 (apparently depending upon what God tells her she should do). I don’t know what all else she may or may not believe (I think I would be afraid even to ask). What I would like to know is there any evidence in any of her stated beliefs and pronouncements or whatever of even the barest scintilla of serious thought? She just says things that come right out of the Republican or Evangelical mileu with no evidence of original thought whatsoever. She reminds me of my late aunt Mamie (bless her), who was a nice lady in her way, but the most opinionated know-nothing that ever walked the aisles of Wal Mart. Silly Sarah is the personification of the average American housewife who just repeats whatever Republican or Christian nonsense she hears. I have nothing against average (or even above average) American housewives, but I confess I would not like one of them to be my President, any more than I would want Joe the average Plumber or Pete the average Repairman or John the average insurance salesman, or even Francis the talking mule. Let’s face reality, Sarah is dumb. She is dumber than dumb because she apparently does not realize how dumb she actually is. The idea that she could be President of the United States is dumb even beyond dumbness. The fact that she has supporters is frightening beyond belief. We just had eight years of Mr. Dumbness himself that proved to be an absolute disaster. Now we have a President who is smart and these dummies hate him. They are going to hate him whether he is successful or not, and they will do whatever they can to make sure he cannot be successful, even when looking out for their best interests. What a weird country we live in.

We have arrived at a point where our culture has become so absurd I am not certain anything can be done to change it. The human species has proven it is completely inept when it comes to managing its affairs. This is apparently a species specific shortcoming as I know of no other species that has engineered its own demise. Here we are in the 21st century. I am getting requests to save the polar bears, to do something about global warming, to prevent further wars, to save the salmon and hundreds of other species, to take care of abused and neglected children and animals, to feed the hungry, to do something about health care, and on and on and on. What I want to know is, why should this be up to me at this late date? Where have all our leaders been for the last few centuries? Why haven’t these things been taken care of? Why have we allowed our own nest to be so fouled? What is it about homo sapiens that renders them so incapable of successful social life? Now we will be asked tomorrow to give thanksgiving, thanksgiving for what? Are we to give thanksgiving for the horrible mess we have made of our planet and our lives? No, appropriately enough, we are giving thanksgiving for having made it through one more year. How many more before we either blow ourselves up or drown in our own filth? So happy thanksgiving! Be of good cheer. Keep a stiff upper lip. Tomorrow may be canceled due to lack of interest. Remember the Maine, the Alamo, and Saint Ronnie. And never forget, we are good, they are bad, and we will “win” (something unknown but apparently desirable). Wheee!

AN EPITAPH
Walter de la Mare

Here lies a most beautiful lady,
Light of step and heart was she:
I think she was the most beautiful lady
That ever was in the West Country.
But beauty vanishes; beauty passes;
However rare, rare it be;
And when I crumble who shall remember
This lady of the West Country?

This better be good!

Buzkashi, Afghan game played
on horseback with headless goat,
wants to become Olympic sport.

This better be good, President Obama. It seems our President has finally decided to send 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan, “to get the job done.” What job? He supposedly is going to explain this decision in the next few days which will, I sincerely hope, define this job with some precision heretofore lacking. Personally I think this is a terrible decision and I cannot even conceive of what job he has in mind to finish. Unless this job has something to do with the stupid pipeline that Cheney and his oilmen friends wanted all along (an item conspicuously missing from all news about Afghanistan these days) I cannot imagine what it could be. Afghanistan is not called “the graveyard of empires” for no reason. The British failed miserably, the Russians likewise, as well as even Alexander the Great, so what makes Obama and his kill-crazy generals think they can prevail? Obama cannot win here no matter what. If he fails with the 34,000 troops, they will say he didn’t send enough troops, and if he “wins” what is it he will have won? I have feared all along that Obama would give in to pressure from the Pentagon (and their interests in the Military/Industrial/Political complex) and continue this hopelessly lost adventure, and he has. No good will come of this, only more and more deaths and more and more misery and destruction. We simply cannot win anything in Afghanistan, and we cannot complete the job, unless the job is getting out of there as graciously as possible.

Not only are we going to lose in Afghanistan, it appears now there is a very good chance we are going to lose on Health Care Reform as well. The Bill has been diluted so greatly the only thing it has left is the public option, and that, too, may fall. The Republicans, whose stated plan all along has been to kill any reform of our dysfunctional health care system, cannot defeat it by themselves. But with the help of four apparently deranged Democrats they can. If these four holdouts cannot be persuaded to vote in the public interest all is lost. It may be that some of them, perhaps at least three, may be persuaded eventually if given enough “goodies” to satisfy them. Whether Lieberman (who I believe truly is deranged) can be persuaded I do not know. The reasons he offers for resisting for the most part are demonstrably false, but he continues non-stop on his holier-than-thou claims of conscience (this must be a newly minted conscience as he never had one before). This is a most interesting situation. The public wants a public option. The President wants a public option, The House wants a public option. A majority in the Senate wants a public option. But four democrats, along with all Republicans are going to stand in the way. At least two, maybe three, of the democrats say they are philosophically opposed to giving the government control over health care. But the government already has control over much of health care. And furthermore, if the majority of their colleagues don’t agree with them you might think they would graciously concede to the majority (I rather think they will when it comes down to the wire). If Lieberman doesn’t come around he should not only be relieved of his chairmanship (democrats have coddled this jerk long enough), he should be drummed out of the Senate for willful obstruction of the public interest (he should probably be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail, but as such a great friend of Israel he may be untouchable (Israel does tend to run things here in the U.S.).

Keith Olberman listed Glenn Beck as today’s worst-person-in-the-world. He was wrong. Glenn Beck is the worst person in the world every day. It appears that Beck tries to sell gold on his program. This is presumably because some of his sponsors (that he has left) sell gold. Now why would people who sell gold want to sponsor Glenn Beck? Could it possibly be because they know his audience has to be composed of the most gullible suckers on earth? It constantly amazes me to know that Beck actually has an audience, a following. I shudder when I think of what his audience must really be like.

There are hints now that Silly Sarah may be an end-of-the-earther, a believer in Armageddon. If this is so, and I don’t doubt it, I don’t think it is merely a result of her recent dinner with Billy Graham. The fact that she is, and has been all along, some kind of religious nut, seems to get little or no play in the MSM. At least so far she hasn’t claimed that she talks directly with God. She, too, has a following, apparently a pretty good-sized one, so perhaps a Palin/Beck ticket is not so far-fetched after all. Bring ‘em on, I say.

Desolation
marks the path of victory,
and also the shame.

Morialekafa

Sweet Thunder - book

Sweet Thunder The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson, by Wil Haygood (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009)

Man, o’ man, did I love this book! This is partly because Sugar Ray Robinson was a rags-to-riches, larger-than-life, stranger-than-fiction, pull-no-punches, quick-as-a-cat, hard-as-nails, sly-as-a fox, cock-of-the-walk, king-of-the-hill, generous-to-a-fault character, who was tooling around the streets of New York in his flamingo colored Cadillac convertible with his armed midget chauffeur when most other blacks were still riding in the back of the bus… and thus an outstanding candidate for a biography. That Hollywood has seen fit to make movies of Jake LaMotta and Rocky Graziano, but not of Sugar Ray Robinson (neé Walker Smith Jr.), is a mystery I cannot fathom.

I also loved it because Wil Haygood’s more than adequate prose brought back to life the bustling Harlem of the 1940’s and 50’s, and Sugar Ray’s finest moments, in all their color and glory: “As the American calendar kept rolling over the emotional headlines of the forties and the dangerously quiet fifties, a part of the world was spinning in a singular rhythm all its own. From private home to nightclub, from lodge to auditorium, there was a gathering of caramelized and brown and black faces. Sepia dreams – lovely, spilling forth at night – were everywhere, thousands captured in their net. These dreams could not escape segregation, or the laws of the land. But still, art poured from their conditional existence, like music lyrics written on a windowpane.”

I think I also liked it so well because of the “and times” part of the story. It was my finest time as well. I was a teenager and young man during the Sugar Ray period. We followed his every fight (on the radio and in print, of course) and were convinced he was the greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time. This was the era of Miles Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Langston Hughes, Lena Horne, Billy Eckstein, the Dorsey brothers, Walter Winchell, Frank Sinatra, Damon Runyon, Hype Igoe, and Jimmy Cannon, and so many more, all of whom patronized “Sugar Ray’s” popular and beautifully designed nightclub. The time when Sugar Ray won his first championship, taking the belt away from Tommy Bell, and fighting often against the likes of Jimmy Doyle (whom he involuntarily killed in the ring), Bobo Olson, Carmen Basilio, Jake LaMotta, Rocky Graziano, Randy Turpin, and many others. Before he was through, Sugar Ray had won both welterweight and middleweight championships, and were it not for the exceptional heat one June night in 1952, he would also have claimed the Light Heavyweight title from Joey Maxim, who outweighed him by 15 pounds. Haygood captures the hype, excitement, and outcome of most of these famous bouts, and also some of the circumstances leading up to them. His account of Sugar Ray’s bout with the Great Henry Armstrong, in which Robinson defeated the aging warrior but left him with his dignity and a much needed purse, is quite moving, as is his account of how Sugar Ray fought exhibitions after the death of Jimmy Doyle to insure that Doyle’s mother would have a house and security.

Having seen what happened to most boxers of the time, like his idol Joe Louis, Robinson not only managed to avoid the gangsters who muscled in on the fight game, but also, from very early in his career, took over his own management of it. He was a sharp businessman, not to be outsmarted by greedy promoters or crooked managers, and with the help of his only manager and close friend, George Gainford, became not only an outstanding champion, but an International celebrity, idolized in Europe as well as America.

Sugar Ray was “class,” and he brought it to boxing, understanding there was more to the sport than simply violence. He and his entourage (which grew larger over the years) dressed in style, stayed only in the finest hotels, ate in the finest restaurants, and hobnobbed with musicians, movie stars, and even royalty. He and his remarkably beautiful wife, along with Billy Eckstein and his equally beautiful wife, were show stoppers wherever they went.

Sugar Ray had dreams of becoming a dancer and show business personality, and was not without talent. He played piano, drums, and took dancing lessons for years. When he finally had to retire from the ring he attempted to enjoy a second career as an entertainer, but he was just not professional enough and soon failed. Haygood does not delve into what must have been the temptations for a person in Sugar Ray’s position, but there are hints, and eventually, after many years of a happy marriage, his first wife divorced him. He found happiness with a second marriage, to an equally beautiful woman, moving to Los Angeles, and starting a large foundation to help poor and neglected children. Hundreds of such children testified to the importance of the foundation and what it meant to them. At the height of his fame, and because of his pal, the strange but powerful Walter Winchell, he became involved in raising money for the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund, which he continued doing until the end. The end came much too quickly for this remarkable man, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but mercifully died of a heart attack before it overwhelmed him. His life was remarkably scandal free (except for some unanswered questions about how he managed to get discharged from the army when he did). It is impossible to know how many thousands of people, fighters, children, others down on their luck, he helped during his lifetime. His unprecedented negotiations with the TV industry over TV rights was a victory for all fighters and led to exposing the widespread corruption that existed and a number of antitrust lawsuits, as well as to much more lucrative purses for all fighters. Sugar Ray was truly a man about whom it is fair to say, “he did it his way.” As Haygood put it:

“The final record stands at 173 wins, 19 losses, and 6 draws against a backdrop of a quarter century spent in the ring. It is easy and far too simple to keep making the pound-for-pound claim; the arc of his fighting career demands a deeper consideration. He lives because he lies beyond imitation. He is, as Stravinsky was to music, a wonder, a mystery, a piece of time.”

Uh, what if...

While burglarizing home,
teenage burglar stops
to warm baby’s bottle.

Uh, yea, but, like, what if…Tomorrow the Senate is going to vote on the health care bill. It does seem like Democrats are going to be united enough to prevent Republicans from killing the bill before it gets to the floor. I confess I do not like this process, nor do I like the way our political system operates through bribery, threats, and what-have-you. Apparently, in order to get the vote of the Senator from New Orleans they had to promise her 100 million dollars specifically earmarked for Louisiana health care. Like, health care for the rest of the nation isn’t a worthy enough goal in its own right? In order to get Ben Nelson’s vote they had to promise not to rescind some special priviledge the Insurance companies have. Who knows what they must have promised Joe Lieberman or others. This is the way our political system operates, even on issues of absolutely compelling public interest such as health care? Actually, I know it is, but I still think it is a terrible way of doing business, and I don’t find it to be entirely satisfactory. But what I really wonder about is what happens if something goes wrong. That is, Harry Reid supposedly counts the votes and when he thinks he has them, he goes ahead and has his Senators vote. But the count seems to be very precise at 60 votes (as far as I know). What if one of these Senators changes his or her mind at the last moment? Or what if one or two become ill and cannot be present for the vote? Or, what if one of them suddenly goes crazy and votes against the bill, thus killing it? Should I worry about this? I don’t know if I should, but I do. This is mostly because I suspect that many of our Senators (and Congresspersons) are crazy to begin with. I am partly saved in this fear by the fact that the ones I think are the most crazy are Republicans who are not going to vote for the bill anyway. But it still makes me nervous and I will not breath easily until it’s over. Of course this vote only means they will then eventually consider voting for real. What a way to run a railroad!

Well, Silly Sarah, the quitter, has made another stupid mistake. In Indiana she left everyone alphabetically from the N’s on down standing outside in the rain for hours only to fail to get their signed copies of her book, even though with their special wristbands they were supposedly guaranteed an autographed copy. Some of them were understandably upset and there were a lot of boo’s as she left. Naturally she blamed the organizers rather than herself. But I suppose her ardent supporters will never admit she is little more than a mindless twit trying to make big bucks off John McCain’s terrible mistake.

Where does a 2000 pound alligator sleep? Anywhere he wants.

What does a small nation with only about 7.5 million citizens, that exists mainly because of the sufferance of others, do? Anything it wants.

And what does it do when its major ally and financial supporter tells it to stop building settlements in the interest of peace? Nothing.

I find the situation with Israel and the Palestinians absolutely incomprehensible. This tiny, blatantly racist, greedy nation, in existence only since 1948, has done nothing for all these years except lie, steal, procrastinate, and thumb their nose at the rest of the world, and no one apparently will do anything about it. President Obama, the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, and the nation that provides virtually unlimited funds to Israel, asks them to stop building settlements in the interest of peace and they just refuse. He does nothing about it. I believe that Obama himself probably would like to insist they stop, but realizes that, politically, he is basically impotent. The United States does the bidding of Israel, not vice versa, and has for so long it has become established policy. No matter what Israel does, no matter how racist, genocidal, illegal, or outrageous, the U.S. always lines up on their side. Is it any wonder the Palestinians and other Arabs do not believe we are honest brokers? If we cannot insist they stop the settlements there will obviously be no peace in the Middle East, ever. This will be fine with the Israelis because they obviously do not want peace. Peace would mean they would have to give up some land and water and recognize the Palestinians are equal human beings, something I am beginning to believe they are incapable of doing.

There is some talk now about the Palestinians unilaterally declaring themselves a nation, as it has become apparent Israel is not acting in good faith with respect to a two state solution. I’m all in favor of this. The Israelis should be in favor of it also, because if they are not, they will ultimately become a minority in their own country. The Palestinians will become the majority fairly quickly and apartheid will not work for very long. Similarly, the much-vaunted Israeli nuclear arsenal will be of no help whatsoever. It might threaten Arab neighbors (although I think even this is doubtful) but they will not be able to drop any on the Palestinian majority living with them. Forget the Iranians, the biggest threat to Israel is Israel itself.

LKBIQ:
Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.
Benjamin Disraeli

TILT:
Friedrich Engels was opposed to the institution of marriage which he believed was unnatural and unjust.

Things that matter

Thirteen year-old Alabama
boy arrested for repeatedly
soliciting decoy prostitute.

As far as I know, virtually all cultures have folk sayings, parables, and such that most often offer advice or supposedly helpful information gathered from centuries of experience. We have many of these, such as “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” “You can’t cheat an honest man,” and of course many, many more. But we also have some that seem to me to be basically, even obviously, absurd: “Ignorance is bliss,” for example, or “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.”
It is true that we live much of our lives in ignorance. In some cases it just doesn’t seem to matter much. For example, if you are a bowler, you might be aware that your bowling ball weighs either 14, 15, or 16 pounds. But you probably don’t know that the bowling alley is supposed to be 62’ 10 3/16 inches from the foul line to the pit. Or that the pins must be set precisely 12” apart, or that the number one pin must be 2’ 10 3/16 from its center to the pit. Similarly, if you play golf you probably don’t know that a golf ball weights 1.620 of an ounce, and the diameter must be no less than 1’.6.80,” or that the hole should be 4 or 4 ¼ inches in diameter. Only a professional baseball player might possibly know the circumference of the ball is 9 to 9 ¼,” and weighs 5 to 5 ¼ ounces. And if you play pool you are probably unaware that the balls weigh 5.5 to 6 ounces and have a diameter of 2.25 inches, while the corner pockets are 4.5 to 4.625 inches wide, but the side pockets are 5 to 5.125 wide. It is possible to be extremely good at all of these games without knowing any of these basic facts and many others. These are things of which you may be entirely ignorant but it just doesn’t matter. While you might not say your ignorance here is bliss, you can probably safely say your ignorance doesn’t hurt you.

Having just watched the video, Food, Inc., I have to observe that what you don’t know about your food supply certainly is hurting you, and you will not attain any state even close to bliss. In fact, not knowing how your food is genetically modified and corporate farmed may well be making you sick. Monsanto is clearly the worst offender what with their genetically modified seeds and attempt to be the sole source of our seeds, plus their various pesticides, insecticides, and what have you. Tyson Foods is another dangerous offender, and we are just now beginning to wake up to the fact that something desperately needs to be done to regulate these corporate giants. In fact, the idea that only a handful of giant corporations are now producing most of our food is dangerous in the extreme and never should have been allowed in the first place.

And speaking of ignorance, it surely would have been a great help had Bush/Cheney known more about Iraq and Iraqi culture before lying us into our completely unnecessary and illegal “war.” It seems they weren’t even aware there were two major religious factions, Sunni and Shiite, nor did they know anything about the culture in general. It strikes me as obscenely ironic that they apparently studied carefully just what kinds of torture would be the most efficacious to use on Iraqis, but knew next to nothing about anything else.

Similarly, we entered Afghanistan with little or no knowledge of that country and its culture. We apparently just assumed that a country organized entirely by tribes and clans would happily give up their thousands of years of living that way to eagerly embrace democracy they hadn’t even heard of and had no interest in. Nor did we know anything about tribal hospitality that made it virtually impossible to simply give up Osama bin Laden at our request. Here again, we are presumably learning a great lesson, ignorance is not bliss, and what you don’t know can and will hurt you badly.

Culture is a strange thing, as once you become enculturated you tend to act pretty automatically. We do not, in our ordinary daily lives, think much about what we are doing, or why we do it. We do not ordinarily challenge our cultural beliefs or question why we do not eat horse or dog meat, or try to shower every day, or eat with knives and forks. These behavior patterns are just part of us, part of our daily lives, things we tend to live our days without consciously thinking about them. This mode of life seems to work pretty much okay, but only as long as we do not engage with other cultures which do things differently and do not necessarily share our beliefs. Throughout all of our relatively brief history we have refused to even acknowledge that other cultures may have things to offer us, or to treat them even with basic respect. American exceptionalism may be a comforting belief for us, but it has been a terrible disaster for most others. Have we learned anything from our violent history? I don’t think so, we seem to be just as arrogant and ignorant as always. President Obama has an opportunity at the moment to admit to our shortcomings and set us off on a much more realistic course, but it is unlikely the corporate powers that rule us all will allow it. Our ignorance is their bliss.

LKBIQ:
The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos.
Stephen Jay Gould

TILT:
A modern supermarket probably has as many as 47,000 different items.

Silly Sarah, Idiot's Delight

Both Dalia Dippolito and
her hit man fail to
kill her new husband.

Silly Sarah, Idiot’s delight, seems to be a resounding success in Michigan on her book tour. I was amazed this morning when I saw the line of people waiting to buy her book, and get it autographed. I told myself that many of those people probably were not serious Palin supporters, but just wanted to buy a book for a friend or parent or whatever. But even subtracting some percentage for that, there still were a lot of people there, apparently many who had been in line since the night before. Bill Press on some show or other said people were really just lined up for a freak show, wanting to see the bearded lady. He also suggested she would make a lot of money and then just disappear as “this is a bus to nowhere.” I think he is right. Certainly I hope he is right. I felt a bit better when I saw an interview with a bookstore clerk in New York who said they had ordered eight copies, but he didn’t think they would sell.

In any case, this made me more aware than ever before that I apparently inhabit a totally different universe from many of my fellow citizens. There were a couple of brief interviews with those standing in line for this momentous event. One man said (seriously, I fear), Palin is more qualified to be President than either Obama or McCain. I thought that was stretching reality a bit far. A woman said she supported Palin because she was inspirational. That sort of went over my head as I couldn’t imagine very well what the hell she could possibly be talking about, opportunistic, no doubt, but inspirational? As near as I can tell Palin is both an empty head and an empty pantsuit (skirt?) who at best can produce a couple of Republican talking points, like reducing taxes, no health care, drill baby drill, and other Republican drivel.

Some think that Palin is using this book tour as an exploration for the possibility of running for President in 2012. Even I don’t think she can be that dumb (but of course I could be wrong, I often am). When someone mentioned the possibility of Glenn Beck as her Vice-Presidential candidate, and she didn’t immediately disavow it, I knew she wasn’t being serious. This is all just a show, just a way for Palin to make a lot of money quickly, enjoy her few moments of fame, and then laugh all the way to the bank. The MSM is going to make us suffer through it all until the bitter end.

It has been widely conceded that Palin was completely unqualified to be Vice-President (except for McCain who obviously does not want to admit he made an absolutely idiotic decision), so why would anyone think she would be qualified to be President? Interestingly, there apparently are a few such people. Of course these are mostly the same people who believe the earth is only 6000 years old, the earth is flat, and dinosaurs disappeared because our ancestors must have eaten them all. What I find so amazing about this, is that there are any people at all at the beginning of the 21st century that idiotic. I suppose I should stop watching Rachel Maddow so exclusively and add Fox, Limbaugh, Hannity, and others to my daily schedule, but I’ve tried that and it makes me sick to my stomach and gives me headaches. On the one hand I guess I should be happy to realize that there can’t be more than about 30% of the American public who are borderline (or not so borderline) insane, but on the other hand I find it unsettling (to say the least) that there are that many apparently brainless people.

I suspect that part of this absurd Idea that Silly Sarah could be President is a result of George W. Bush having been President. You know, if Bush, a borderline retarded man, could be President for eight years, why not Palin, or Wilbur, the talking pig, or Mr. Ed, or any ordinary jackass for that matter. The people who seem to think Palin could be President (with no qualifications to speak of, and dumb as a post), now have a President with brains, trying desperately to improve their lives, and they hate him. I mean they literally hate him (I suspect much of this has to do with the fact that he is half black).

And so, appropros of nothing, this leads me to health care. It seems the Senate has come up with a bill that looks like a real winner. It will include 31 million people not currently insured, it corrects some of the most egregious Insurance company crimes, and will substantially reduce the deficit over ten years. This bill is the result of a great deal of extremely hard work on the part of Congress and offers the greatest chance ever for health care reform. But, of course, there is some doubt it will ever make it to the floor as there are still three or four Senators who may not vote for it. In my mind this would be absolutely unconscionable. But, hey, it’s only 31 million people who would have to continue without health care, that can’t be very important, can it? If any Democrat blocks passage of this bill they should be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. They could be like the man Lincoln mentioned who, when being treated in such a way, said “If it weren’t for the honor I would rather have walked.”

LKBIQ:
A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.
Spanish proverb

TILT:
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge had a window in his outhouse.