Things happen

Bubblehead: Good point. Maybe Japan. I think it may depend upon what the alternative was.

Things do happen, however slowly. Let’s see, tomorrow the Senate is going to more or less do away with the 4th amendment. You know, the one that has to do with being safe from search, seizure, and stuff. Even Obama is going to vote for this shocking attack on the Constitution. He’s wrong, just as the rest of our Senators are. They are supposed to protect the welfare of our citizens, not just capitulate once again to the Bush/Cheney criminal conspiracy. Spineless bunch, if ever there was such a bunch.

Those ungrateful Iraqis! Now that we have murdered a bunch of them (no one knows how many, because they apparently don’t count as people), destroyed their country, driven a couple million out of their homeland, and are still trying to control their oil, they have the effrontery to say we should get out, or at least set a timetable for getting out. This is going to be interesting because both Bush and McCain have said in the past that if they asked us to leave, we’d leave. Want to bet on it? I wonder how this will turn out. Of course we could attack Iran, just to teach them all a lesson. They want us to leave, and the American people want us to leave. So…?

A 60 year old librarian was escorted away from a McCain speech because she had a sign that said McCain = Bush. Four policemen took her away from the event and assigned her a court date. You see, McCain has learned from Bush/Cheney, as this is precisely the fascist tactic they have been using for the past few years. I hope she sues because she’ll have a real winner. Can you believe this? She ws just standing there with her sign, nothing else. I vaguely remember something about free speech.

The Brafia keeps insisting that Obama has flip-flopped on Iraq, which he clearly has not. Apparently they are taking lessons from Goebels and believe that if you repeat a lie often enough people will come to believe it.

Congress is threatening to arrest Karl Rove because he is refusing their subpoena. I don’t believe they will arrest him but wouldn’t it be a fitting maneuver and a joy to behold. Rove in the slammer, where he belongs. I wish they would get Dick the Slimy as well. We say, the wheels of justice turn slowly, and they certainly do, far too slowly for me as I may not stick around long enough to see justice for this band of crooks and murderers, if, indeed, anyone in Washington D.C. would ever act honestly or courageously. I would hope that every country on earth would refuse to deal with us until there was some honest accountability for our obvious crimes against humanity.

I can’t decide whether this is an anti-semitic joke, or just another Jewish joke:

Sol and Abe were out walking. They passed a Catholic Church. There was a sign that said “$1000 if you convert.” Sol said, “I have to go in and check this out.” He did. Abe waited. Sol finally came out.

Abe said, “what happened?”

“I converted,” Sol replied.”

“So did you get the thousand dollars?”

Sol said, “Is that all you people think about?”

This is from a delightful little book called “Plato and the Platypus,” the authors of which I cannot recall.

LKBIQ:

I have a simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884 - 1980)

Hallelujah

I have had, and continue to have, a certain amount of respect for Bill Moyer. But I have to wonder where he has been for the past eight years. He has been making noises now for the past few days that the Iraq “war” was about oil, “after all.” Now either Bill has been AWOL on this issue for the past few years, or he knows better and is just now using it to get some attention. I know people can be accused of hindsight and all that, but, really, even I knew it was about oil, and I am a nobody living in a remote part of the U.S. If you remember, there were millions of people all around the world marching to protest the “war” with Iraq. No doubt there were many different motives for their marching. But there were hundreds carrying signs that said “no blood for oil.” What did Moyers think that was about? Similarly, although it was supposed to have been secret, it was well known that not only did Dick the Slimy have meetings with the oil Executives, but they were engaged in plotting how the Iraq oil fields would be split up among themselves. Moyers, being an excellent newsman, could not have been unaware of this. Whether everyone knew it was about oil or not, the ones that didn’t surely didn’t believe we were going to spread democracy to the Middle East. When in history did the U.S. ever export democracy (when there was not some ulterior motive)? Furthermore, it was well known that the Iraqis were sitting on what was believed to be the second largest untapped oil reserves on earth. The U.S. is the premier user of oil. Did anyone think these two things were unrelated? Of course not, unless they were so naïve as to be completely out of touch with reality. I don’t like to think of Bill Moyers as naïve, but I don’t know what to make of his apparent “hallelujah” experience, finding out just now that it was really about oil all the time. Of course it was about oil. It was about oil then, and it’s about oil now. That is all it was ever about. Never mind the crap about spreading democracy, WMD’s, getting rid of Sadam, or whatever. If Sadam had been playing ball with the oil giants as we wished he would still be there.

Similarly, what is all this nonsense about Obama being a politician, or “just another politician?” Obama served in the Illinois legislature. He ran for the U.S. Senate and won. What did anyone think he was, an electrical engineer? Of course he’s a politican, and a damn good one as it turns out. Figuring out that Obama is a politician is on a par with discovering that night follows day, or the sun rises in the east, or you have to put your pants on one leg at a time, or whatever.

Now we have had to put up with three days of the Brafia and the MSM accusing Obama of flip-flopping on Iraq. He has done no such thing. There is documentary evidence that proves beyond any doubt that he has been perfectly consistent on this issue from the beginning. But as the Brafia has nothing positive to offer about anything, they have to keep attacking Obama even when there is no factual basis for it. When did either facts or reality matter to the Brafia? So far Obama has been able to survive these malicious and unfounded claims against him, and he has even managed somehow to “keep his cool.” I guess the Brafia should ask their legal expect, Yoo, if the President has the authority to eat Obama’s children. You will recall that when asked if the President had the power to order someone’s children’s testicles crushed he declined to answer.

I guess it would be totally unprecedented if the Brafia and McCain would just give up now to save themselves further humiliation and embarrassment. I think they must have decided as all was lost they might as well let the old guy try it anyway. I take no pride or pleasure in pointing this out, but, truly, McCain is a pathetic excuse for a candidate. He has no consistent platform, changing his tune from day to day. He’s a terrible speaker. He lacks charisma. He seems to have to have his minders (Lieberman, Graham, and his wife) with him at all times. He has a history of adultery and a reputation for being extremely foul tempered. He’s trying to push policies that are opposed by a great majority of U.S. citizens. In short, he has nothing going for him. I cannot see how things can get any better for him. Obama is going to accept his party’s nomination in front of 75,000 people. Doesn’t that tell you something? There is nothing to look forward to if this one-sided contest continues except more months of roviating Obama, the Brafia has nothing else they can do. They should throw in the towel and get started on trying to ruin his Presidency, as they did Clinton’s, so they might have a chance in 2012. I think we should all be more alert this time and not let them get away with it. Let’s have four years of serious attempts to solve our very serious problems, not another four years of Whitewater and Monicagate. The Republican party destroyed itself when it became the Brafia. I think the next Attorney General may be more important than the President himself. Let us hope Obama selects him/her with care.

LKBIQ:
Civilization is built on a number of ultimate principles...respect for human life, the punishment of crimes against property and persons, the equality of all good citizens before the law...or, in a word justice.
Max Nordau (1849 - 1923)

I see dead people

I see dead people. Often. In our local newspaper. I don’t know why, but quite some time ago our local paper decided that purely prose obituaries were not sufficient. Now most all obituaries appear with a photograph of the deceased. Most of the photos seem reasonable enough, corresponding roughly to the age at which the person died. But it can be disconcerting to read about someone’s death at ninety or so, when the picture shows them as a 16 year-old. I know, that is just being picky. I have never really read obituaries, and, in fact, I don’t read them now, but adding the pictures has made them more noticeable. What I find to be most interesting is the fact that so few people die. The vast majority of people featured in the obituaries are rarely said to have done much of anything except “passed away.” I have no idea how the phrase “passed away” became the pretty much typical explanation for people dying. Of course you have no idea where they passed to, just that it is away. Perhaps this is so useful because it is so non-judgmental, the person could have passed away into anywhere. While you sometimes see that someone has been “called to heaven,” or even “called to Jesus,” you never see an obituary that says someone was “called to Satan,” or “called to Lucifer.” Passed away seems to be the safest description of someone’s demise and clearly has become the cultural preference for such reports. The relatively few persons who are not described as having passed away are often said to have “gone to eternal rest,” or “called home to heaven,” or having “answered Jesus’s call,” or sometimes, “entered into eternal rest.” It does happen occasionally that someone is reported to have died, but this is rare. In some cases it doesn’t specify that the individual has died, passed away, gone to heaven, or whatever. You just assume they have because their picture appears on the obituary page. I don’t exactly understand putting dead people’s photographs in the paper. Maybe this is a feeble attempt at immortality, especially nowadays as there are archives upon archives and nothing much ever completely disappears. I, for one, do not want my picture put in the paper when I die. Indeed, I don’t even want an obituary. Because we are so faithful to our cultural traditions, no one ever speaks badly of the dead. Thus the obituaries are completely non-objective and do not really describe the truth of the deceased. I don’t know how many funerals you have attended, and I no longer attend such events, but I know of cases where the deceased, not being a churchgoer, having to have a funeral, has a preacher recite a few words about him or her. The preacher gets this information in a three or four minute interview with someone who knew the person, and then they “wing it,” in such a way that the person doesn’t even faintly resemble who they were. When I experienced this strange practice was when I stopped attending funerals. I don’t attend weddings either as I find them too similar to funerals with respect to the reality of the respective events. Given the durability of marriages in the U.S. you might as well go to the casino and roll the dice for a while. I am reminded of a joke about the death of a gambler. Some of his friends were attending the church service and listening to the preacher. He said something to the effect that “Arnold hasn’t really died, he’s just passed on to another….Before he could finish a voice from the back of the room said, “8 to 5 he’s dead.”

You would never hear, nor would you ever expect to hear, someone say, so-and-so has left us for we don’t know where, where they will probably continue to be the the cranky, nasty, impossible person they were before their demise. Nor would you ever hear, so-and-so has gone straight to hell, and he/she deserved it. When my time comes I don’t want any pictures, sermons, or obituaries, not even a funeral. Just cremate me in the cheapest way possible. I want to go to the “happy hunting ground.” No, not really, I guess I would prefer eternal peace (if there is peace anywhere, which I am beginning to doubt). Just remember that life is a terminal condition transmitted by sex, and be prepared for anything (or, more probably, nothing). Ciao.

I am trying very hard not to believe that Barack Obama is another religious nutcase. All this talk about Jesus is making me nervous. Come on, Obama, tell us what you are going to do to fix the disaster you are about to inherit, and keep your relations with the supernatural to yourself.

LKBIQ:
“’I meant,’ said Ipslore bitterly, ‘what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?’
Death thought about it.
‘Cats,’ he said eventually. ‘Cats are nice.’”
Terry Pratchett

Melange a trois

Pet dachshund chews off
diabetic master’s big toe.
She has him euthanized.

Melange a trois. No, I didn’t misspell it. It’s what is going on in my garden. Like many such arrangements it is complicated and somewhat chaotic. I guess I made a bad mistake. I planted corn, pole beans, and squash all together, as they have done for hundreds of years in Central America. I thought the climbing beans would be supported by the corn, and the squash would help to prevent weeds from growing. I must have planted the wrong kind of beans (some fancy Italian beans my wife ordered) as they are growing at a much faster pace than the corn. The squash is growing even faster than the beans. Thus, as in many eternal triangles, the squash tendrils are pulling the corn in one direction, while the bean runners are pulling in a different direction. Not only that, the bean tendrils are latching on to the squash leaves as well as onto the corn. Thus I have a mélange of woven plants that are tied together in such a way as to become almost impenetrable and make any form of weeding impossible (if, indeed, any weeds can grow there). I have no idea how this is going to turn out. I think I may be picking beans off the squash plants and squash off the corn, if, that is, the corn doesn’t succumb to too much pressure and refuse to cooperate entirely.

To make matters worse, I am becoming more and more convinced that my little elegant cat, Katie, is carrying on some kind of relationship with a skunk. I have learned that this sometimes happens with skunks and cats. I know the skunk is here, as the little holes he leaves give him away. And Katie is staying out later and later at night (skunks are mostly nocturnal) and coming home early in the morning utterly exhausted. It’s all she can do to make it to her favorite spot on the couch where she then seems to completely pass out. I don’t usually monitor her friends, and she is, of course, being a cat, very independent. But what are we going to do when she tries to bring her friend home to dinner? I don’t really mind skunks (in their place), but I wouldn’t want my Katie to…

I guess Obama and McCain are still campaigning. The truth is, I’ve pretty much lost interest and have cut down on my TV news time considerably. It’s not that I don’t think it’s important. I regard this coming election as probably the most important during my lifetime. But because the Brafia have nothing to run on, no accomplishments whatsoever, all they can do is keep roviating Obama and spreading ridiculous lies and rumors about him. As the only other possibility for President at the moment is McCain, I can’t see the point of worrying too much about it. If Obama does not win in a landslide I will be most surprised. Having bankrupted our country, virtually destroyed our military, neglected everything here at home, including the economy, what on earth can the Brafia expect? To elect an old guy who is promising more of the same? I can’t even believe McCain is doing this, it makes no sense at all. I can’t imagine anything they could turn up about Obama that would make me vote for McCain, literally nothing. If Obama, who I think has at least the possibility of becoming a truly great President, doesn’t turn out so well, I can assure you I will still have no regrets whatsoever in favoring him over this impossible Brafia offering. I’m tired of the killing and the unnecessary “war,” and I want no more of it. I want to see us go back to the time when it didn’t really matter much which candidate was elected as you could depend on them to perform in much the same way and you didn’t have to worry that they would potentially destroy the world as we know it. There is just no way our country can survive another four years of the Bush/Cheney disaster. Obama is our great white hope (remember, he’s just as white as he is black, not that it should make any difference). Please repeat after me: Obama is not a Muslim. Obama is not a Marxist. Obama does not want to do away with white people.

LKBIQ:
“Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.”
King Whitney Jr.

A road less traveled

“Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost

When the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence they took the road less traveled – and what a difference it has made! We may be about to embark on another less traveled road and I wonder if we have any idea where it may lead. It has been traditional in U.S. politics for an incoming administration to more or less ignore the possible transgressions of their predecessors. Barack Obama has indicated that he may not follow that precedent. He has said he will have his Attorney General (whoever that may be) look into the question of criminality on the part of the Bush/Cheney administration. This will truly be a road less traveled. And what a difference it may make! Unless Obama doesn’t follow through on this, or unless his Attorney General can generate a miracle, there is no doubt there will be plenty of criminal activity to investigate, not the least of which will be war crimes on a large scale. But there is great danger lurking here as so many individuals from both parties have been complicit in such crimes. The only realistic possibility, it seems to me, will be to go after the major ringleaders, those who planned and brought about these crimes. They are well known: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Rove, Perle, Addington, Libby, Wolfowitz, and a few others. Ideally, those most responsible for what has happened in Iraq should be turned over to the Hague and tried, just as the Nazi war criminals were tried. Is this likely to happen? I think not. Will anything happen at all? I should think it will have to. Even if Obama and his administration might prefer to overlook these crimes, as oncoming administrations have done in the past, I should think world opinion will keep them from doing so. After all, the whole world has been watching, and they all know what has happened, and the Obama administration will have to deal with them. The U.S. has sunk so low in world opinion I cannot see how we could ever become respectable again without taking action against those responsible for these atrocities. This will be, indeed, a road less traveled. I suspect a road much rockier and more dangerous than any we have faced since our famous revolution of 1776. Of course we could elect John McCain and just let the crimes continue. If not, I sincerely hope Mr. Obama has “girded his loins,” and is fully prepared for an unprecedented and monumental battle.

I may be very wrong, but I believe there is a fatal flaw in our political system, and I think it stems from an oversight by the Founding Fathers. I don’t think it ever even occurred to them that a situation could, or would, arise where a relatively small group of people could simultaneously seize virtually complete control of all three branches of government, the executive, legislative, and judicial. But with the help of their corporate allies that is what the neocons accomplished, thus rendering our much vaunted checks and balances inoperative. Furthermore, I think the Founding Fathers failed to anticipate this because it never occurred to them that many American citizens would deliberately act against love of their country in favor of aspiring to personal wealth and power. Has American character changed over the years or are these neocons just a unique bunch of bad apples? They might, of course, argue they were really trying to protect the interests of the U.S. (which I do not believe as they were more interested in making profits for the oil companies). But even were we to grant them good intentions, did the ends justify the means (“war,” torture, lies, deceit, etc.)? I, for one, do not believe so.

LKBIQ:
“Our character…is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny.”
George Santayana

What does thinking have to do with it?

Has thinking been a completely lost ability in the U.S., especially as it relates to elections? If you watch the MSM, or read the major newspapers, you would have to conclude that thinking has vanished from our human repertoire. Take the recent flap over General Clark’s comments about McCain’s qualifications for President. Did anyone, or does anyone, believe that being shot down and incarcerated as a war prisoner is a qualification for being President? I should certainly hope not. A second’s thought would be enough to dismiss that as utter nonsense. But some are still carrying on about it as though it has some importance. Take today’s flap over Obama’s pledge to bring our troops home in 16 months. Apparently those who are incapable of thought believe that Obama meant he would literally bring troops home in precisely 16 months no matter what. It is completely thoughtless to believe that he meant that. It would be like someone saying, “I’m going to kill myself on October 10th,” and then finding out on October 8th or 9th their health had improved or they had won a 10 million dollar lottery. Hey, you said you’d do it on October 10th, what are you, some kind of flip-flopper? Does it really require any deep thought to know that when people say things like that they mean, if nothing intervenes in the meanwhile that would lead me to make changes in my plan, I intend to do so-and-so by the xth of y. If a politician states that he/she is going to change the tax code, are we to understand they are going to do that no matter what. That is, what if they run into very strong opposition and are unable to change the tax code as they claimed they would do? Does that make them liars? Flip-floppers? Come on, use your brain, that’s supposedly what it’s for.

Now that Obama is clearly the Democratic candidate, and the campaigns are moving forward, he is coming under increasing fire. Some are apparently already having buyer’s remorse. Not me, although I do question some of his recent positions. Take his FISA vote. I didn’t like it and I would have preferred he just vote no. But he has explained why he did it, he has a point, and I appreciate the fact that he actually explained his position. Did you ever hear anything like that from Bush or Cheney? Similarly, I am personally opposed to any faith-based programs, no matter how they are administered. But for Obama, at the moment, I think his planning to extend them is probably brilliant. And if he follows through on his promise of no proselytizing and strictly watching how the money is spent I can live with it. Furthermore, it is a really cheap way to gather a lot of support from that particular constitutency. Although I don’t like it, it probably will do no harm.

Where I violently and absolutely disagree with him has to do with his plan to expand the military. Expanding the military, when we already spend more than all the rest of the world on military, is to me an idea so completely absurd that I have apoplexy just thinking about it. Indeed, I firmly believe the military budget could be cut by a minimum of 50% and we’d still have more than enough security. If Obama, or anyone else, is worried about not having enough troops for Iraq and Afghanistan, I say okay, let’s get the hell out of there, we don’t belong there in the first place, and there is no way we can ever “win.” I know Obama cannot appear to be “weak” on national defense, and I know the military/industrial/political complex will encourage him to spend even more so they can continue their greedy production of useless armaments, but I wish he would just tell the truth: we are spending way to much on absolutely senseless military projects and it is crippling our nation. He should also question why we have military garrisons in some 70 or more countries. We do not need an “empire” in order to get along in the world. In fact, we’d get along much better without it. Realistically, the increasingly powerful Chinese and Indians, and the already powerful Russia and Japan, to say nothing of the Europeans, are not going to allow an American empire in any case. Let’s get out before we are forced out. Our tail is already a long way between our legs, thanks to Bush/Cheney and their megalomaniacal dreams of empire. Think. It’s not really that hard to do.

LKBIQ:
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
Soren Kierkegaard

Real people?

When I was a little boy my father and some uncles regaled me with tales of how they fought the “Huns” during the first World War. It was pretty much how the Huns did this, and the Huns did that, and what things were like in the trenches, and one of my uncles was a victim of poison gas and never fully recovered, along with the usual war stories men sometimes tell children. I was also made aware there were “savages,” and “uncivilized” creatures in remote parts of the world. Somewhere, too, I remember the “Reds had been said to have been fighting the “Whites.” In this context, I did not even find concepts like “the boogeyman” necessarily far-fetched. My enculturation provided me with a rather strange idea of the world and what kinds of creatures might be populating it.

Later, when I was a near teenager, we started fighting the Huns again, except now they were called “Krauts,” “Nazis,” and occasionally “Jerries.” They were also collectively known as “Fritz.” At the same time we were fighting elsewhere against “Japs,” “Nips,” and “Slant Eyes.” Some of the Slant Eyes were “Chinks.” They were on our side, at least for a while. Allies of the Krauts were the “Guineas,” or “Wops,” and “Dagos.” For a time “Ivan” was on our side, but later Ivan turned into “Russkies,” “Commies,” “Pinkos,” and “Fellow Travelers.” During this same time our allies were known as “Limeys,” or “Tommies,” along with “Frogs,” and “Diggers.”

Still later we fought “Gooks,” “Slant Eyes,” “Viet Congs,” and the “Yellow Peril.” Actually, we fought Gooks again later, along with Chinks.

Now we are fighting “Ragheads,” otherwise called “Towelheads,” as well as “Hajis.” Some may still be referred to as Gooks but I’m not sure about this latter. Krauts and Japs are now our allies against the Hajis (sort of), as are “Brits,” and even Frogs and Dagos. Most of our enemies are simply referred to as “Terrorists.” Things change.

As I recall, it took me a while to understand that Huns and Krauts were actually Germans, that is, real people. But I had less trouble later with Gooks, Wops, Commies, Frogs, and such, although it took me a while to realize that Gooks, Frogs, Towelheads, and Hajis were actually real people too, living breathing individuals just like me, with mothers, fathers, brother, sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts, and such. I guess the closest anyone came to actually suggesting these were real people was in the cases of Ivan and Fritz, but even there these were generic terms, not individual specific ones. It was like an epiphany, suddenly realizing there were real people out there in the world, not just different groups of mysterious, perhaps not fully human creatures that I could not very well imagine. Of course, unlike the earliest explorers, I did not really think these strange creatures, Huns and Wops and Hajis and such, would have only one eye in the middle of the foreheads, or would have horns and tails or feet on backward, I confess I didn’t think much about their possible human attributes at all. They were merely “enemies” who needed to be destroyed (for reasons that were not always clear to me). Now that I am older and more experienced in the ways of men and women, I understand that to fight wars it is necessary to dehumanize your enemies as much as possible. However, now that I know the truth about such matters, that is no longer possible for me.

Having lived for various periods of time in several different parts of the world, including with so-called “savages,” as well as the highly “civilized,” I do not believe any people are intrinsically evil (although there certainly are some “bad apples” out there). But some are somewhat stupid, many more are just ignorant (which is not at all the same as stupid), and most are ethnocentric, somewhat greedy, short-sighted, and selfish (people without these characteristics exist but are in my experience, rare). If people were capable of overcoming their greed, short-sightedness, selfishness and ethnocentrism, perhaps there would be some hope for humankind, but don’t count on it.

LKBIQ:
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
John Kenneth Galbraith

Run for your lives

Run for you life! The Iranians are coming! They are maybe, someday, perhaps, if they are actually trying, going to enrich enough uranium so they might, if they wished, be able to have a nuclear bomb of some kind. Presumably, if they ever succeed in having such a weapon they are apparently expected to succumb to a nation-wide bout of collective insanity and immediately run out and attack the entire world, especially Israel and the United States.

I confess I can see no basis for this paranoid fear of Iran, certainly not on the part of the U.S., and I am very skeptical of Israeli fears as well. First, there is no hard evidence that the Iranians are even trying to build a bomb and they insist they are not. Second, they have every legal right to enrich uranium for energy. Third, they have made overtures to the U.S. on several occasions, only to be spurned by Dick the Slimy. Fourth, they have no recent history of attacking anyone (not for over two hundred years). Fifth, they are not stupid, they know how much power Israel and the U.S. can muster that would destroy their country rather quickly, Sixth, as far as I can figure out they are absolutely no realistic danger to the U.S., or even to Israel, Seventh, it is not the Iranians that are threatening to attack either Israel of the U.S., but obviously vice-versa.

It seems to be repeated daily, like some kind of mantra, that Iran is the chief sponsor of terrorism in the world. I have not seen any examples of Iranian terrorism. Did they participate in 9/11? No. Did they blow up the USS Cole? No. Just what did they do to gain this reputation of being the number one supporter of terrorism? As near as I can tell it is because they support Hezbolla and Hamas. Hezbolla and Hamas are not terrorist organizations in the eyes of most of the world. Hamas is the legitimately, and democratically elected government of the Palestinians which Israel and the U.S. refuse to recognize. They understandably are not supporters of Israel and would prefer there not be an Israel. To me, that does not make them terrorists. Just bcause someone else’s interests are not the same as yours does not make them terrorists. Of course some of them have participated in terrorism against Israel. It is the only weapon they have. Israel itself has a past history of terrorism, and what they are presently doing to the Palestinians is nothing short of terrorism and worse. Hezbolla is the only strong, organized force in Lebanon that can keep Israel at bay. You recall that not long ago Israel, with the connivance of the U.S., attacked Lebanon and randomly destroyed its infrastructure and civilian population. If it had not been for Hezbolla they could easily have just taken Lebanon. This does not, in my mind, make Hezbolla a terrorist organization.

Yes, Iran has national interests that are not the same as the interests of the U.S. Is it wrong for a nation to have national interests of their own that do not please the U.S.? Indeed, their interests in Iraq and the Middle East would seem to be far more justified than ours. It’s their neighborhood. Why are we meddling in their neighborhood from 8000 miles away? Could it be they have something we want, like oil maybe, and we want it so badly we may well try to take it by force as we are doing in Iraq? How much Iraqi and Iranian oil do you think we could buy for the two trillion dollars we’ve wasted in Iraq? The combination of Israeli paranoia and U.S. greed is a present danger to the entire world. An attack on Iran would be a war crime of the greatest magnitude, as well as completely unnecessary. If we would discuss diplomatically with them about their nuclear aspirations without insisting they give them up in advance perhaps we could both benefit. Don’t expect it with Dick the Slimy still steering our sinking ship of state.

Now we have a report of a wolf attempting to steal water from a camped biologist. A captive lynx climbed into a high tree and stayed there until it died of dehydration. Animals are sick of us and fighting back in the only ways they know how.

I am living in terror that somehow I will be forced to watch "Mind of Mencia."

LKBIQ:
“You’ve also got to measure in order to begin to effect change that’s just more—when there’s more than talk, there’s just actual—a paradigm shift.”
George W. Bush

From the basically irrelevant to the fantastically absurd

Whoever said this was the “silly season” certainly had that right. It is difficult at the moment to see any difference between black comedy and a contest for President of the United States. American politics has reached the point of almost zero significance. What have you heard lately from the candidates about the real issues confronting our nation: the “war” in Iraq, the recession, health care, education, our decaying superstructure, the national debt, and so on? Not much, I’ll bet. Oh, I guess some of these occasionally get mentioned in passing but none of the candidates spends much time on them. Why is this? Because they spend most of their time on utter nonsense. The current flap is over General Clark’s remark that being a fighter pilot and getting shot down is not a reason to be elected President. Of course it’s not. No one ever said it was, as far as I know. But neither does it disqualify one from being President. In fact, it is basically irrelevant. This is not keeping the MSM from carrying on and on about it by the hour. Although you wouldn’t know it from the news, Clark went on to claim other faults in McCain’s credentials: he never commanded a true wartime unit, he never had to order bombing, etc. All true, I guess, but, again, irrelevant. In fact, the whole business of having been or not been in the military is basically irrelevant. If these are the criterion for being President, Obama doesn’t have them (Clark is supposedly supporting Obama). But, then, neither did a great many of our Presidents. Certainly George W. Bush and Bill Clinton did not have such experience.

Turning to the fantastically absurd, take the case of Barack Obama. Many seem to cling to the belief he is a Muslim. He is not. Now there are slurs that he is a tan (black) Kerry, which he is not. In Florida some are writing on cars that he smokes crack. He does not. Wanting to prove he is who he says he is, he produced his Hawaiian birth certificate. Some refuse to believe even that, in spite of the fact that Hawaii has verified it as true and valid. Some say he is from Africa. He is not. Some say he is a “Manchurian candidate.” He is not. At least one Congressman has recently claimed Obama is a Marxist. He is not. I gather that those who think he is an African also think he worships his monkey key chain. Can it really get any more absurd than that? This is what our current political season has become, just incessant babbling about completely nonsensical claims and counterclaims, having nothing to do with the serious business of electing an American President. Now Obama has scheduled a trip to Europe and the Middle East, after having been criticized for his lack of foreign experience. The critics are saying one trip does not make you an expert on policy. Obama can’t win when he is up against such absurd claims, no matter what he does it is not going to satisfy these critics. And what is worse, and even more ridiculous, is some are saying he should not allow demonstrations in Europe while he visits, because his popularity in Europe won’t go over well here in America because we are suspicious of Europeans (I don’t know who said this but some Brafia must have been the author). I suspect the whole world is hoping and praying for an Obama Presidency, and they will probably demonstrate if they wish. We are supposed to interpret this as a bad sign, given our current status in the world community? Where do these nitwits come from?

This sort of things is especially prevalent this year because the Brafia administration has absolutely no positive achievements to run on. None, nada, zilch. They have screwed things up so completely there is some doubt in my mind they will ever be restored to where they once were. We used to be the beacon on the hill that everyone looked up to, now we have become the village idiot that everyone wishes they could just ignore. If they are insane enough to attack Iran (to do the Israeli bidding) it will be the last maniacal act of the most dismal, murderous, criminal, deceitful, unconscionable, despicable, disgusting administration in American history (and don’t think they might not do it, at this point what do they have to lose?). After all, once you’ve committed multiple war crimes, and everyone knows it, why not add another? And by the way, your scurrilous roviating of Obama and his wife isn’t working too well, I suggest you go after the children, I bet at least one of them might have stuck her gum under her chair. Man, what the MSM could do with that!

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

Sunday babble

I gather from our local newspaper and the MSM that the entire world shuts down on Saturdays and Sundays. Even the otherwise almost incesaant political babble seems to quiet down significantly. So, in the spirit of non-news and babbling I have decided to join in and babble to my heart’s content. It is my blog, after all, and I should be able to cry all I want.

First, on the bacon front. My bacon turned out to be quite delicious, even my wife agrees that it is much superior to anything we could buy in the store (and as a chef she is very particular). It is slightly too salty, but if you blanch it quickly it not only solves that problem but also makes it cook up much more crispy. The slab I am going to smoke tomorrow is going to be much better as it is a much more savory type and I have learned from this first slab. Of course we’ll have enough bacon to last for the rest of our lives, but with the price of bacon how can we complain. I am so buoyed by my successes with corned beef and bacon I am now thinking of curing a pig’s jowl (guanciale). Perhaps someday I will even graduate to sausages. It proves there are two possibilities: either you are never too old to learn, or there’s no fool like an old fool.

A friend recently returned from Amish country. He tells me that the Amish now use fully mechanized farm implements, as long as they are pulled by horses. Similarly, he reports they can own and use expensive tractors as long as they have metal wheels. I have no doubt these things are true. My friend would have absolutely no incentive to lie about such things. Furthermore, I find this entirely consistent with religious beliefs and practices in general, like wearing special underwear, beanies, black or white caps, eating fish on Fridays, believing in parthenogenesis, or whatever.

I wonder if there are people out there in space analyzing our television programming and magazines to see if they can perhaps understand us. If so, what would they see and think. I suggest they would immediately come to believe we are obsessed with (l) erections, (2) losing weight, (3) taking drugs, and (4) breakfast cereals. These are all interrelated and all point towards the same overwhelming American obsession: Sex. We often hear how it is that language reflects important elements of society. Pehaps the best example is that the Eskimo have several words for snow. I bet we have far more words for penis than they have for snow. Does that tell us anything?

I have just seen an article that points out that at the latest Paris fashion shows, men’s clothing is becoming increasingly feminized. That is, the materials used, and the designs tend to reflect what are ordinarily perceived as women’s fashions. Some are upset about this. Not me, I don’t care what the latest fashions are for either men or women. This would become obvious to you if you ever saw me. Frankly, I believe fashion and cosmetics have to be about the two most utterly ridiculous human activities that exist.

I have never been able to decide if I dislike poets more than dancers, or dancers more than poets. Mind you, it’s not poetry and dancing I dislike, it’s the practictioners of these avocations. Poets and dancers have always struck me as way too intense, tending to believe that what they do is their “life,” and shutting out most everything else. I say this of poets and dancers in general, I’m sure there must be some that are not so totally dedicated. I suppose Olympic class athletes are much the same, but at least they reach a point where they either succeed or fail and then go on to other things. My mother taught me to do everything in moderation, thus I am suspicious of extremists of any kind (not that I ever listened seriously to my mother).

Think of it, in a society of 300 million people, there are an estimated 76 million handguns. Do you believe it would be feasible to suddenly try to ban handguns? This is so impractical as to be hysterically funny. Handguns don’t deteriorate much over time, if at all, and people who own them are usually pretty passionate about owning them. This is a case where practical realities overwhelm desires and it is surely a lost cause. Of course now that our Supreme Clowns have decided individuals have the right to own guns, and not just militias, the issue should be moot – but it won’t be. This would just be another attempt at Prohibition that would be doomed to fail. We already have more than enough trouble with our current Prohibition on drugs, a situation that is causing far more grief, suffering, and crime than the failed Prohibition of alcohol. Marijuana should be immediately legalized and other drugs should soon follow. This is not to say they should be just readily available to anyone and everyone, prescriptions should still be required. But drugs are a medical problem, not a political one. You remember the scene in The Graduate where the guy offers advice to the graduate in one word: “plastics.?” If I had to advise a similar young man at the moment I would say: “hemp.”

A grizzly bear attacked a young woman involved in a 24 hour bicycle race in Alaska. I tell you, I believe the animals have had enough of us and are beginning a revolution. Is someone planning directing, and coordinating this animal terrorism? Perhaps it is all part of "Intelligent Design."

LKBIQ:
“Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out of the window, except that the birds might eat them.”
Dr. Martin Henry Fischer

Big doings

Man censored while trying
to legally change his name
to “Fuck Censorship.”

Big doings in Bonners Ferry this afternoon. The official grand opening of Papa Byrd’s Bistro. A former pizza parlor, this restaurant has expanded its menu to include specialty sandwiches and salads, as well as two or three special dinners each evening. In addition they serve exceptionally fine desserts. Owned and operated by Bonners Ferry native, Mark Truesdell and his niece, Tracy, it has proven to be a resounding success. So if you’re ever in Podunk, look it up. There is also a rodeo going on tonight. You know, one of those old-fashioned western institutions where they get together to abuse animals for fun. Personally, I can’t say that I’m against rodeos, but I do wonder how they manage to survive year after year when the way of life that created them has vanished long ago. You just don’t hear “The Strawberry Roan” anymore, and most people nowadays probably never even heard of Tom Mix, Ken Maynard, or even Hopalong Cassidy (although there was a starlet once who named her St. Bernard, “Flopalong Placidly,” perhaps in his honor).

The Pentagon reports that the Afghanistan terrorists (resistance fighters?) are proving to be exceptionally resilient and seem to be gaining strength. They may even be taking over one of the towns in Pakistan. Should this come as a surprise? No one has ever managed to conquer or take over Afghanistan, not even the Russians with their superior forces and technology. And we and the U.N. are certainly not winning there. It raises, for me, the question I have posed before, what the hell are we doing there anyway? There was this dream of a pipeline from somewhere or other through Afghanistan to bring oil to the west by bypassing Russia entirely. I believe that is now simply a pipe dream (pipe dream, get it). I believe there is a deal for a pipeline to be built that will furnish oil directly to India., but I’m not sure. In any case, there is no reason to suppose we will ever be able to build a pipeline for U.S. interest through that rugged, dangerous, and fiercely independent place. It isn’t really a country anyway, being broken up into different areas under the control of different warlords. Our puppet government controls nothing outside of the capital and only continues to stay in place because of our support. In short, it’s a mess, and likely to stay that way forever. We’re not winning and even if we were, what would we win? Of course Osama bin Laden is said to be residing there, somewhere in the wild hills of the Pakistan and Afghanistan border country. We seem to have made little effort to capture him. Many even believe he is dead. Pakistan, unable to control the Afrghan fighters, has entered into truces with them. Bush, in one of his truly laughable moments a few days back, said he would intensify his efforts (after seven and a half years of failure, after having said he wasn’t really concerned with bin Laden, after doing virtually nothing to find him, he now claims he’s going to intensify his efforts? This is in the same league with his fantasy notions that he will solve the Israeli/Pakistan problem in the last few months of his administration – people have been locked up for ideas nowhere near as fanciful as these). But Bush is Bush, and brains are brains, and never the two shall meet.

My bacon came out pretty good, but not as good as I wished. It’s a bit too salty, and I don’t think I smoked it quite long enough. But it is perfectly good to eat and I can honestly say, I’m learning. My basketmaking is at a standstill. My teacher, Diana, is busy running around the country giving lessons to people who pay her (when she could be spending her time giving me free lessons). Now, she promises, after the Fourth of July holidays. We’ll see. She is demanding to see the little basket I made for my wife. It’s really pretty pathetic, although my wife professes to like it. I haven’t felt so nervous about anything since the fourth grade when I failed penmanship. I tell myself, buck up, be a man, but inside I know I am just as infantile as always. Like my friend, Firestone says, “we’re all still just infants in increasingly decaying bodies.” By the way, did you know there are Senior Rodeos, where seventy and eighty year-olds ride and perform tricks? I wonder if they sing “The Strawberry Roan?”

LKBIQ:
“Fall is my favorite time of year in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees.”
David Letterman

Down, Grover

German woman stealing manure
falls in manure pit, strips,
and runs off starkers.

I am trying to make some kind of sense out of Grover Nordquist’s claim that Barack Obama is just John Kerry with a tan. Many are upset because they see this as a racial slur which, at this point in American culture, is not permitted. I should think it is much more of a nasty remark about Kerry than it is about race. The implication is clear that there must be something wrong to be like Kerry. What the tan has to do with it is not clear to me. It does call attention to Obama’s darker complexion but does not seem to me to be a racial slur, just another stupid comment by Nordquist who has a history of saying stupid things, like wanting to drown government in a bathtub (he really wants to drown police and firefighters and our military in the bathtub?). It appears to me that once Nordquist’s parents taught him to say “tax cuts” he never progressed any further in his languagea acquisition. It never seems to register with Nordquist and his friends, when they rail incessantly about having to pay taxes, that if we would reduce our military expenditures and curb the military/industrial/political complex that is in full control of us and bloated beyond all reason, that maybe our taxes could go down. No, it’s never that, it’s always Social Security, Medicare, and useful humanitarian institutions that are at fault. I have never been able to decide whether Nordquist is simply stupid, or if he is just plain evil (I suppose he might be a practical joker, but I haven’t noticed that members of the Brafia have much in the way of a sense of humor). People with no sense of humor are among the most dangerous creatures on earth.

And speaking of creatures on earth, have you noticed lately that the animals are starting to strike back at us. Just the other day a mountain lion killed an ate a man in New Mexico. Coyotes have been attacking children in California and elsewhere. Bears, too, are more and more invading human homes and yards in search of food. So are Moose in some places. It probably won’t be long before we have a problem with Polar Bears trying to survive in our cities. There are more and more accounts of elephants in India invading villages in search of food. Monkeys, too, are invading houses, opening refrigerators, and stealing food. I believe there are other instances of animals turning against people as well. This is not surprising I guess, given that we are systematically destroying their territories and decreasing their food supplies and such. I find this worrisome. Just think what they might do if they had a charismatic leader like George W. Bush making decisions for them. I find it worse than terrible, and completely unconscionable, that we have fouled our environment so shamefully. I find it even worse that all other species are having to suffer from our arrogance, ignorance, thoughtlessness, and greed.

For weeks now our server has been completely unpredictable. Sometimes we can get on and sometimes not. It is very awkward having to live with such a system. This is why you may have noticed that sometimes morialekafa is published at night and other times in the morning. We keep hoping that once the snow melts on the mountains it will be fixed.

Tomorrow my bacon goes into the smoker. As I never made bacon before I just keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. That’s what keeps us going here at Sandhill, hope, hope, and more hope. A few contributions are starting to appear for Julian’s Fund. More hope. The garden seems to finally be growing (along with the millions upon millions of weeds that grow faster than anything else). More hope. I think I made a mistake in planting this year. I planted climbing beans, corn, and squash all at the same time together in the same plot. People in Central America have been planting like this for centuries. However, I think I may have planted the wrong kind of beans as they seem to be growing much faster than the corn that is supposed to support them. Will the corn catch up? More hope. The squash is doing well. Indeed, it is doing so well I am afraid of it. I think it may grow through the windows and come in the doors and strangle us in our sleep. Naturally I hope not. A skunk is tearing up our yard like gangbusters. Every night, more holes. I think our little cat, Katie, may be in love with it. I hope not. See, hope is ubiqitious. I hope you all have a nice weekend. Chins up.

LKBIQ:
“More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”
Woody Allen

Guns

Man fails to prove his gun
was unloaded by shooting
himself in the face.
.

Supreme Court makes an unprecedented interpretation of the 2nd amendment and decides 5 – 4 that the right to own guns does not apply merely to militias but also to individuals, and therefore the Washington D.C. ban on handguns is unconstitutional. Justice Antonin Scalia indicates that he knows exactly what was really in the minds of the founding fathers. Many will argue this was a terrible decision, and I suspect it is, but terrible decisions are routine for this Brafia court. Personally, I am not particularly bothered by this even though I think it was wrong, because it does seem to me it would be totally impractical to decide otherwise. That is, there are an estimated 222 million firearms in the U.S., 76 million of which are handguns. Thus no ban on handguns could ever be enforced so it seems to me rather moot. I believe, however, that they left enough room so that local governments can regulate the sale and ownership of handguns at least in certain ways (like keeping them out of the hands of the insane, etc.). Oh well, win a few, lose a few. Maybe someday we’ll have a real Supreme Court again instead of one bought and paid for by the Brafia.

The Brafia complaints about Obama’s presumed lack of bipartisanship, in addition to being just plain false and without merit, are little more than laughable. I hope you remember that for the past eight years (actually, even longer) the Brafia has been the most arrogantly nonpartisan bunch of crooks ever. Remember how they refused to even let Democrats use rooms for their meetings? Remember how they violated precedent by keeping the floor open longer than usual so they could keep twisting arms and get the result they wished? Remember how they created bills with no Democratic input whatsoever and then rushed them into law before anyone could even read them? Oh, yeah, they were really a bipartisan bunch. Now that they are losing power they are crying like babies about the lack of bipartisanship. Personally, I don’t want bipartisanship with a bunch of war criminals and thieves. I hope the Democrats get such a huge majority they can completely ignore the Brafia (and hopefully hold them accountable for all their crimes). It is true that McCain has a history of bipartisanship, but so does Obama, but the Brafia does not and the Democrats could not have been bipartisan even had they wished.

Obama seems to be creeping further and further ahead in the polls no matter where you look, except for a weird Gallup tracking poll that claims a 45-45 split (this seems to me absurd when you look at the rest of the polls and the differences in the number of people who claim to be Democrats as opposed to Brafia). Some point out, rightly, that Dukakis and Kerry were also ahead in the polls at this stage in the contest. I don’t know that that has any meaning. It’s sort of like betting heads will come up because tails has come up nine times in a row. I do not subscribe to the belief that because something has happened one way in the past it will probably happen that way again. I doubt that is a sensible way to calculate odds.

I don’t mean to be mean or unjust or prejudiced about age (how could I be prejudiced about age when I am older than McCain), but I have to confess that McCain comes across to me like a pathetic little old man who still thinks he’s the man he once was. I find this unutterably sad. It bears out my own experience.

LKBIQ:
“Old age is the most unexpected of things that can happen to a man.”
Leon Trotsky

Just another politician

I have seen several times here and there on the MSM and the internet that one of the Brafia strategies is to portray Barack Obama as “just another politician.” I don’t know precisely what kind of politician they have in mind, but I would anticipate a politician who would have at least some connection to his constituency, would listen to them and try to please them, and although he/she might stretch the truth now and then and not be able to please everyone, he/she would at least abide by the rules and the Constitution. Jeez, I think it would be nice to have “just another politician” after the eight years of Bush/Cheney. No one could accuse either Bush or Cheney of being “just another politician.” One can well argue that Bush/Cheney are not even politicians as they quite some time ago obviously entered into a scheme to transform themselves and the Republican party into a criminal conspiracy (Brafia). This is no different than any other mafia except instead of drugs and prostitution they have elected a more white-collar type of crime whereby they could fleece the middle-class of their money and give it to their corporate and criminally wealthy friends. They engineered a fake “war” based entirely upon lies and distortions of fact so they could enable their friends in the defense industries to grow even richer by war profiteering. They colluded with their friends in the oil industry to control Iraq oil for their own purposes, thus driving up the price of oil and the profits of the oil companies. They have silenced their critics either by firing them or ruining their reputations and they have amused themselves by torturing their captives. All the while they have been running what is little more than an old-fashioned protection racket (vote for us or something bad is going to happen, like another terrorist attack, for example). I have little doubt that Al Capone himself is sitting up in his grave applauding this somewhat more sophisticated version of basic racketeering. No, Bush/Cheney are not politicians, they are known war criminals, but just like the organized gangs of the past, they have bought the judges and found the right kinds of crooked lawyers, and have rigged the system to their overwhelming benefit. And they want this racket to continue, for 100 years if possible. While Obama may be “just another politician,” and may have ties to our corporate masters, and may not be the reform candidate we ideally need, it is unlikely he will continue torturing and looting and violating the Constitution as Bush/Cheney have. And he will almost certainly not surround himself with hordes of incompetent and unqualified sychophantic yes-persons who will swear allegiance to the current dictator rather than to the Constitution. Hopefully he will attempt to undo the crimes of the past 8 years and seek some form of accountability. There has always been a tradition in American politics for a new administration to ignore the sins of the last one. The sins of Bush//Cheney and the neocons are far too blatant and horrible to just be forgiven. I do not believe there is any precedent for an administration to act so recklessly, incompetently, or criminally as the Bush/Cheney one. To ignore their war crimes will lead the world into holding us in utter contempt. They have led us right to the brink of this contempt already, to allow them to just go their way with their criminal profits will push us into the precipice itself where we will be doomed to stay forever. What they have done is perhaps irreparable, and it is truly unforgivable, but we have no choice but to at least attempt national salvation. Impeachment for these murderous criminals would be nothing but a slap on the wrist for them (indeed, not even that, as they have no shame whatsoever). Their fate should be left up to the international courts (which we helped create in the first place).

LKBIQ:
“One who condones evils is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why black?

Man known to bathe and
shave outside killed and
eaten by mountain lion.

This business of being identified as black has me very confused. As I mentioned in yesterday’s bog, Obama is half white. So why is he always identified as black when logically he could just as well be identified as white? It is true that he identifies himself as black, and it is also true that he sort of looks black, but nonetheless he is just as white as he is black. If you vote for him why are you voting for a black man anymore than voting for a white man? I don’t know the precise history of this classificatory scheme, nor do I know the legalities of it, but I do know there has been a tradition in the U.S. of labeling black anyone who has any known black blood in them. I say any known black blood because there are examples of blacks passing successfully for white, depending upon their appearance. But what is the reason for this practice of labeling people black because they have a bit of black blood in them? Is black blood so much stronger than white that it should win out completely, even though someone may have more white blood than black (yes, I know there is no such thing as black blood or white blood, it’s just a way of discussing this issue). It seems to me that the fact that there is no black or white blood simply makes the whole business even more confusing. But to continue…would white people agree with the premise that black blood is stronger than white blood and therefore should win out in classifying? Does stronger blood mean better blood? I don’t think most people would agree that their white blood is inferior to black blood. Maybe it’s that black blood is more evil somehow? But that would be to admit that black blood is stronger than white blood, and that the good white blood is insufficiently strong to overcome it. In other words it would be a case of evil triumphing over good. I don’t think most people would accept that. In Obama’s case, I suppose one might argue that his father’s blood is superior to his mother’s blood, and it is that that makes him black rather than white. But that would be sexist in the extreme, to say nothing of kind of stupid. If Obama is as white as he is black why should he not be identified as a white/black, or a black/white, or a half-caste, or even a mulatto? Of course these last two identifications have a traditionally negative connotation. And how is it that he is called an African-American, he’s not African, but only American. Of course he is of African descent. But he’s also of American Midwestern white descent, so why is he not called a Kansas/African, or an American-African (a Kanfrican or an Amero-African). It seems to me that labeling him black is in and of itself discriminatory as he is half white as well. In any case, as we have by now had all kinds of black mayors, black Congresspersons, black Senators, black Governors, black Supreme Court Justices, and very high-level black Generals, black intellectuals, some fine black writers, as well as zillions of our best athletes, and so on, what the hell difference does it make if he’s part black or even all black. I should think it would only be a problem these days if he was blue or green or polka-dotted. Besides, he’s not even black, he’s brown. Anyway, I told you it was confusing.

Of course this all goes back to discredited ideas of white superiority and black inferiority, to notions of a “great chain of being,” with whites on top of the chain, to previous naïve beliefs about the evolution of humans and human cultures from “savagery” to “civilization,” as well as completely ridiculous beliefs about race and morality, and so on. Until about the 1500’s there was no concept of race. In areas of the world where there were both blacks and whites, as In Egypt, it seems to have just been accepted that people were of different colors, ranging all the way from white through browns and blacks. Race was a concept that grew out of the so-called “great age of European exploration,” when it became part of a scheme to enslave and exploit those less technologically advanced. The European colonial period was so vicious and “savage” as to make any idea of superior morality simply laughable. This unbelievable baggage of “savagery” is unfortunately still with us in some parts of the world. It is not unrelated to why Barack Obama is labeled as black, or why Palestinians are locked up in Gaza. It is time to leave all this behind and make the 21st century something we can all be proud of. Electing Obama President will be an absolutely giant step forward. We’ve certainly been off to a disastrous and disgraceful beginning.

LKBIQ:
“The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.”
Don Marquis

Huh?

Clever young woman, hurt
and trapped on ledge of rock,
uses bra to signal for help.

Headline on the front page of our local birdcage liner today: “Saudis will increase oil output if needed.” I love that, “if needed.” Would anyone not think the market “needed it,” now that gasoline is four dollars and more a gallon, people in the United States as well as the rest of the world are bitching and moaning and having to change their life styles, and even choose between fuel and food in order to get by, truckers are striking, the world economy is near chaos, and the Saudis think it is merely a question of “if needed?” To make things worse, their proposed increase is so slight it will most probably not even dent the market, just as offshore drilling is not going to bring down the price. One might well think that given the situation it probably is not too wise to just drill for more oil, or demand more oil from the Saudis, but to actually try to get by with less oil. But, no, that might require some common sense, planning, and sacrifice. How unthinkable for “the greatest nation on earth.”

Similarly, I saw today articles that proclaim that “it was all about oil, after all.” Were there really people who believed it was ever about anything else? Democracy? WMD’s? Women’s rights? Saving the heathens? Protecting the innocents? Of course it was about oil. It has always been about oil. It was and is perfectly obvious it was all about oil in one way or another, either stealing it, or controlling it to jack up the price, or whatever. But it was all about oil, nothing else. The people who don’t believe this (if there really are any) must be the same people who believe people and dinosaurs lived contemporaneously, or the moon is really made of green cheese, or the tooth fairy leaves money under your pillow, or, or, or…maybe most of the people who voted for Bush.

Our son, Julian, has been selected to be one of the two Pages who will travel with the Idaho delegates to the National Democratic Convention in Denver in August. He won against a strong field of contenders and we are enormously proud of him. He is ecstatic. In some ways it is better than being a delegate as he will be fully credentialed and able to move about the convention freely. Unfortunately, delegates and pages have to pay their own way to this event. To this end we have established The Julian Langness Fund for the National Convention (The Julian Fund, for short). If anyone wishes to contribute to this noble and useful enterprise, you may do so by sending a check to The Julian Fund, c/o Alice Hendrickson, P. O. Box 926, Bonners Ferry, Idaho 83805. Contributions will be gratefully acknowledged.

Apparently 3 out of 10 Americans admit to some form of racial prejudice. I am not sure just what this means. Does it mean 3 out of 10 will absolutely not vote for a black man? Does this include prejudice against any and all races or just against blacks? Be prepared for the most unpleasant campaign in a long time, one based largely on racial prejudice. It will not be blatant racism but, rather, subtle matters expressed as “we don’t really know him,” or “he’s too inexperienced,” or “he’s too far left liberal, or other excuses.” And of course they are already roviating his wife with their charges she is just “an angry black woman, who doesn’t love her country,” and blah, blah. If Obama’s blackness inhibits you I suggest you vote for his white half, good Midwestern genes. In fact, calling him black is no more accurate than calling him white. So why is he always described as black? Ah, in America we have this tradition, if anyone has even one percent of black blood in them they are black. You can’t get much more stupid or ridiculous than that. For me, personally, I worry much less about Obama’s blackness than I do about McCain’s incipient senility, to say nothing of his obvious dishonesty and opportunistic flip-flopping. Offshore drilling, for example, will not reduce the price of gasoline, no matter what Bush and McCain try to tell you.

I don’t know if it comes under the category of an “urban myth” or what, but I find it interesting that many people seem to believe that if there were another terrorist attack McCain would be better able to handle it. Why do they believe this, because he was in the military and Obama was not? It is true, of course, that he was in the military and Obama was not, but what experience did McCain have in fighting terrorists? In fact, as he has proven himself to be confused over who is a Shia and who is not, and who is training people and who are not, and as his only response to problems seems to be just more aggression and “war,” I think it is highly questionable whether he would be better at fighting terrorists than anyone else. His chief advisor, Charlie Black, has now come right out and said that another 9/11 would benefit McCain, a comment that makes me very nervous, aside from the fact that I don’t see why it should, except for some irrational idea that because he was in the military he is better equipped to fight terrorists. Is he going to fight them alone, hand to hand, without any advisors or military or police to help and advise him? He won’t have the FBI, CIA, and all armed forces to help him? If not, what’s the difference? Obama is unable to pick good people or listen to them? If it’s going to be hand to hand combat I’d rather have a really healthy 46 year old than a 72 year old semi-crippled ex fighter pilot. Given the Brafia’s dismal record on fighting terrorism so far (Osama, by the way, is still going, if he’s not dead), I have little confidence in their ability to do better than Obama. Furthermore, I think Obama and those who think terrorism is more of a police problem than a problem for all-out “war” are probably much more sensible than those who would fight terrorism by starting another unnecessary “war,” whether it be in Iran or elsewhere. Indeed, the Bush/McCain strategy has produced more terrorists than ever before. But terrorism is McCain’s only hope as his candidacy has no other issue to even try to stand on. I’m sick of all this “praise the lord and pass the ammunition” crap.

LKBIQ:
“Whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself to this: ‘Great God, grant that two and two be not four.’”
Ivan Turgenev

Bothersome things

Unqualified man arrested for
enhancing women’s buttocks
with questionable injections.

Another endless Sunday. I did weed a bit in the garden. Most of the day I was unable to get on the web. There is not much, if any, news on Sundays. Sundays are mostly just blah. I’ve decided to just concentrate on a few things that continue to bother me. I do not claim these are necessarily important, nor that they would necessarily bother anyone else. But they bother me.

First, where does all the veal go? You cannot ordinarily buy veal at all here in our little town. On those very rare occasions when you can, all you can find is veal scallopini. If you go up across the border into Creston, B.C. you can sometimes buy veal. But, again, all you can ever find is veal scallopini. In Seattle you can almost always find veal scallopini, and occasionally you can find veal stew meat. On very rare occasions, if you happen to have a lot of really big bucks in your pocket you might find veal shanks. But that’s all. You never see any other cuts of veal for sale, anywhere. No leg of veal, no veal roasts, no veal chops, not even a calf’s head when you need one. So…what happens to the veal? Is it all sold to restaurants so expensive I can never see it even offered on a menu? Do we ship it all to Europe where eating veal is commonplace? Surely they don’t grind it up into dog and cat food?

Another thing that bothers me is why do they constantly screw things up? That is, in my opinion. For example, automobiles. I have a 2001 Subaru Forester. It has 150,000 miles on it and runs as well or better than when I first bought it. I love it. It’s not great for mileage but passable. So what have they done to the new Subaru? They made it bigger! I don’t want it bigger. I like it fine just the size it is. I know this kind of thing has happened in the past to other vehicles. Why, when they have an obvious winner, do they have to screw it up by making it bigger (with probably worse gas mileage to boot)?

I am still bothered by the Gannon/Guckert question. I do not care if people are homosexuals. I don’t care if they want to marry. I don’t care what they do in the privacy of their homes. I firmly believe they are born, not made, but I don’t really care either way. But I still want to know how it was that a known homosexual prostitute, with no real journalistic credentials, was allowed access to the White House on many occasions when there was no ostensible reason for him to be there. I find it incredible that I seem to be the only person on earth who wonders about this. I don’t even care what he did while he was there. But I would like to know who permitted this strange apparent breach of security and who has covered it up so successfully.

I am also bothered by cooking shows. When cooking shows first started, as I recall, they basically taught you things about cooking. They were interesting and educational. But not content with modest successes they have now morphed into contests of various kinds. I don’t think cooking ought to be competitive, at least not in the sense TV has made it competitive. Now, instead of educational and interesting programs about cooking, we have contests to see who can make the most ostentatious cakes, or the most absurd desserts, or beat some other chef in using cheese or tomatoes, or who is to become the next infotainment chef on the ever-expanding cooking shows. When Rachel Ray, who really isn’t much of a cook, can become one of the biggest stars in the field, you know something has gone wrong. Of course we have even made eating itself into a contest, what with all you can eat and hotdog or pie eating contests. Only in America could we convert one of life’s basic pleasures into competitive contests in which the food itself becomes irrelevant.

I am also bothered by the fact that American political campaigns have nothing much to do with what they are presumably for. What does Obama’s occasional failure to wear a flag pin have to do with anything? What does it matter what some nitwit preacher says on any given Sunday? What do the candidate’s wives have to do with it? And why are the candidates virtually compelled to not tell the truth in order to be elected? Everyone knows, well, some people know, well, I know, there is no necessary connection between anything they say on the campaign trail and what they will or will not do once they attain the White House. There is no way they can ever possibly live up to all the promises they make, and once established in power they don’t have to do so. It is mostly now just a very long and tedious farce.

Mostly, as I’m sure you already know, I am bothered by the fact that so few people seem to care that Bush/Cheney and their minions are known war criminals. When Nancy Pelosi can report that she likes George W. Bush I tend to believe everything is hopeless. How can anyone claim to like a person responsible for the unnecessary deaths of thousands upon thousands of people, who could preside over the most executions in the state of Texas ever with only casual investigations into the individual cases, who could mock a woman on death row for pleading for her life, for failing at everything he has ever attempted, for blowing up small creatures just for fun, for being totally separated from reality while pretending to be a “compassionate conservative.” What I really don’t understand is how Pelosi could admit to this in public. If she really likes such a pile of compost she ought to keep it to herself. I don’t understand any of these things and I am bothered by them. I used to be a more or less happy-go-lucky fellow, empathetic and forgiving, content to believe my government was acting more or less in the best interest of its citizens, and even believing in truth and beauty. But no more, the last few years, especially the last eight years, have turned me into an unhappy, cynical, bitter, disgusted old man who worries that no one is going to be held accountable for their murderous war crimes. My only hope is now Barack Obama, but I’m not sure than anyone can really be up to the massive job that awaits them. What Bush/Cheney have wrought may well be irreparable.

LKBIQ:
“Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.”
Carl Schurz

That was then, this is now

I can report, with considerable pride, that I have never once read a column by Cal Thomas (or George Will) -- until today. Well, actually I didn’t really read all of Cal Thomas’s column, which is often featured in our local conservative rag. Today the headline caught my eye, “Obama’s policies are socialist.” Is that not a pathetically predictable Brafia (the Republican party before it morphed into a full-blown criminal conspiracy) claim? Why is it that anytime anyone, especially a Democrat, suggests doing something for the public good the Brafia cries socialism? There is, I believe, an historical explanation for this. Basically, it has to do with the fact that the Brafia is still living in the “then” rather than in the “now.” First, there were/are different versions of socialism, some of which are much more authoritarian than others. You notice that when Brafia speak of socialism (or communism which, in their view is apparently the same thing), they always mention Russia, China, or Cuba. They never mention Socialist Democracies like Norway, Sweden, Germany or France. The term socialism, for Brafia, doesn’t really need any meaning as just the word itself seems to send everyone into a panic. This is, I suggest a carry-over from the past. You will recall that in the late 19th and very early 20th centuries socialistic and communistic organizations were widespread. They were at their strongest, and all fighting for workers’ rights against the robber barons and other corporate entities that were completely opposed to such rights. Socialists joined with unions and strikes were widespread. These were met by government spies, goon squads, and even troops, which put them down with a vengeance. Many were killed and many more arrested. It was a violent time. Even here in Idaho striking miners blew up the Bunker Hill in Kellogg and even assassinated the Governor. The unions won out on some of their demands, like an eight hour working day and other benefits but only after years of battling with the corporations and the government itself. When the current Brafia speaks of socialism this is what they want you to think about. But it all boils down into the simple conflict between the demands of the people and the desires of the corporations, and the attendant conflict between capitalism and socialism. Some progressive and sensible nations, such as Norway and Sweden, for example, have blended capitalism with socialism into a system where excessive capitalism is regulated for the public good. These are Social Democracies and they function very well. Here in the U.S., however, we have evolved in a different direction. Not only does our government not regulate in the public interest, they actively collude with the corporations to do away with as much regulation as possible. This is excessive capitalism carried to an extreme. It probably should be more properly labeled “corporatism. (which some have likened to fascism). ” Goering is reputed to have said, “when I hear the word culture I reach for my revolver.” That is what we should have been doing all these years when we heard the words “privatization” and “deregulation.” We have now seen what privatization and deregulation has done to the oil industry, the banking industry, the stock market, and such. The Brafia continues to push these destructive ideas on a gullible public, to try to break unions, and to turn our country into nothing but a cheap labor pool for our corporate masters. Market capitalism, as the Brafia practices it, is no more than primitive “Social Darwinism,” which was discredited by decent people long ago. Things are, of course, somewhat different now than they were in the early 1900’s. We do, at least, have an eight hour working day (although they would change that if they could). We have credit cards (with usurious rates of interest), not much different than the functional equivalent of slavery. All in all I suppose one could argue that things are not as bad today as back in the days of the true sweatshops (we have moved these overseas) and vicious strikebreakers. Marx and Engels did not anticipate that you could buy off the poor “with a six-pack of beer and a long-legged whore on Saturday night” (someone else’s comment, not mine). Don’t forget, however, that Americans are working much harder than Europeans with much less time off, wages are stagnant, gasoline is approaching five dollars a gallon, more and more people are going hungry because of food prices, most families now have two or more people working to keep up with what one person could provide in the past, many millions are without health care, and some 84% of Americans think we are on the wrong track. People are depressed. There seems to be a glimmer of hope in Obama. What a burden he will have to bear! It is not depression that leads to suicide, but, rather, hopelessness. If this latter becomes more widespread, watch out!
McCain was a war hero. That was then, this is now. Socialism then was a bad word. This is now. Some things are far too important to be left to the private sector: clean air and water, medical care, education, basic superstructure, energy, global warming, and financial institutions. I welcome any socialistic ideas Obama may have, they are badly needed. I hope they truly exist.

LKBIQ:
“We have among us a class of mammon worshippers, whose one test of conservatism or radicalism is the attitude one takes with respect to accumulated wealth. Whatever tends to preserve the wealth of the wealthy is called conservatism, and whatever favors anything else, no matter what, is called socialism.”
Richard T. Ely

Sandhill, circa June, 2008

Yes, Obama opted out of public funding for his campaign, a flip-flop that is not a flop, as he would have been crazy to have done otherwise. Yes, it is still flooding in the Midwest Yes, according to the latest Newsweek poll, Obama leads McCain by 15%. And yes, Bush waved at some guys who did not wave back. The sixth foot was a fraud, someone’s idea of a prank. Very funny. Yes, Hillary and Barack are going to campaign together next week somewhere. They are financially bound to each other. Still commenting on Saint Tim. So much for news.

I think I have now received the penultimate label. I wrote previously how it is that as you age you pass from Mr. to Sir, to Granpa, and even to Pops. Now I have made it to “cute.” You may know that I hate cute in any form. However, last night I was invited by my wife’s boss to have a free dinner in his restaurant. I think he was trying to bribe me to not become an agitator for more money for my wife, who is grossly underpaid. No, not really. He’s a nice guy who thinks about my being alone while they work nights. Anyway, it was reported to me later that the waitresses said I was cute. Now, if you have ever seen me, or even if you haven’t, I must tell you there is absolutely no way I could be described as cute – except -- in the context of something like “he’s a cute little old gray-haired man.” So where do you go after being so described? Of course I would rather be a cute little gray-haired old man than the next alternative.

Others remarked on how incredibly old I am compared to my wife. It is true, I am much older than she is. Some might think she is a “trophy” wife. She is decidedly not a trophy wife. Indeed, I think of her as a divine gift given to me directly by the Great Mystery, whoever he/she/it is. At the moment she works as a sous chef in a new restaurant here in our little town. Her primary chefly duty is making desserts. And does she ever! She also at times teaches Anthropology, Sociology, English and Linguistics. She is multi-talented and can even fix things around the house. In other words, she is as priceless as I am useless. All cute little gray-haired old men need such a wife. One minor flaw has to do with her communicative skills, like this morning, for example. She was experimenting with a couple of new cakes she had never made before. The smells were heavenly. I asked her, “when will you be ready to go get the pork belly?” She said, “I have to make these cakes.” I said, “that doesn’t answer the question.” She replied, “they have to go in the oven.” I said, “that still doesn’t answer the question.” “I have to take a shower,” she said. “But when are we going to get the pork belly?” She insisted, “I have to wash my hair.” “Fine,” I said, are we going before lunch or after?” “I have to go to the store,” she said, “I don’t have any sweet marsala.” “I know we have marsala,” I: insisted. “We only have dry marsala,” she reported, “I need sweet marsala.” “I doubt if anyone here ever even heard of sweet marsala.” I always speak with authority on subjects I know virtually nothing about.” “I’ll call Safeway,” she said. “They have Paul Masson marsala that says it has a sweet nutty flavor.” “Does it have the subtle aroma of the forest floor? “ I inquired “ Descriptions of wines are often absurd. Then she called the Liquor Store. “They have sweet marsala,” she reported, “but it’s Columbo.” “When are we going to get the pork belly?” I returned stubbornly to the original question. “Will you go to Safeway and get the Paul Masson? She asked. “Why get the Paul Masson when the Liquor Store has sweet marsala, that doesn’t make sense.” "I have to put the frosting on this cake,” she announced. “Everyone is going to love it.” Please understand this is an abridged version of the actual conversation. Recognizing defeat when it has defeated me, I dutifully went to the Liquor Store and bought the marsala. The cake was delicious even though I usually only eat chocolate cakes. What, you may wonder, does all of this have to do with pork bellies?
Having decided to make my own bacon we had ordered a pork belly from a local supplier and it had been promised for today. Like most anything here, if you want it you usually have to drive twenty miles or more to get it. We managed to get it and return before she had to go to work. I made a rub and started the bacon. Such is life here at Sandhill in the year of our lord, 2008.

Followers of this blog (there are a few) know that Sandpile is a more accurate description of where we live than Sandhill. But Sandpile, you will agree, lacks dignity. I want to pretend I live somewhere on an “estate,” like Kissinghurst, Yasna Polanya, Fairhaven, Sandhurst, or someplace like that. Humor me, cute little old gray-haired men need love, too. As the weather has been fine for three days now it appears that things might actually begin to grow. Of course by now it will be touch and go to see if anything matures before the first frost. Sigh.

LKBIQ:
“I don’t even butter my bread. I consider that cooking.”
Katherine Cebrian

Why wait?

Sixth foot in one year turns up
on British Columbia shores, five
right, one left. Olosem wonem?

Why couldn’t we move the Presidential election up to, say, the first of August? Think of how much bullshit we would be spared. I doubt that anything much is going to happen between August and November to make much difference, so why not eliminate a lot of wasted hot air? I guess that wouldn’t work for the MSM. They are probably not capable of finding anything else to talk about that would sell as much advertising. I guess this quadrennial event serves for them very much as Christmas does for the rest of the marketplace. I guess it is obviously in their best interest to not only keep it going as long as possible but also to jazz it up as much as possible. So now we have Cindy McCain commenting on Michelle Obama. Wow! Now that is really exciting, as well as important for the outcome of the Presidency. I confess that Cindy McCain does not look real to me, I always think I must be looking at a waxworks figure of her. But she does speak and I guess she’s probably no better or worse than most people in her position. She has reportedly said that she doesn’t know why Michelle Obama said that (horrible) thing she said. You know, for the first time in her life she’s proud of her country, a statement that seems to now threaten the very candidacy of her husband. Quick to pounce on any absurd point they can, some have said that Cindy better watch her mouth lest the media investigate her (I think she once had some to-do about drugs). I guess it would be far too much for anyone to actually reflect upon why a young and beautiful black woman from less than ideal circumstances might not be too enchanted with American culture. I know of at least one such black woman who committed suicide rather than confront the daily insults and propositions and crude language, and discrimination, that was a routine part of her life. How terrible that until now it was unthinkable that a black man could possibly become President, how terrible that race and prejudice were commonplace in American life, how terrible that black women couldn’t just sing down by the levee about how happy and contented they were to be living in such a worker’s paradise. Empathy, along with just ordinary common sense, seems to be no longer a part of American life. It’s the Jeremiah Wright crap all over again, how dare anyone even suggest there could possibly be anything wrong with America? How dare they mention the truth about anything? Whatever happened to those happy “darkies” singing about loading their bales of hay or sittin’ down by the riberside? Anyway, I suggest we enlist the full forces of the FBI, CIA, and the International community to carefully investigate every moment of the lives of Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama. Our security and well-being depends on it, to say nothing of the profits of the MSM. I bet if we could get the two women to mud wrestle it would really be big. Maybe a wet t-shirt contest? Just a thought.

Now that the trillion or so horses are out of the barn, never to return, the Justice Department is cracking down on the hundreds of thieves that were responsible for the great mortgage meltdown and closing the barn doors. These trials will no doubt occupy us for several years, the lawyers will all become filthy rich, maybe a few token sentences will be handed down, and the thieves will manage to hold on to most of their assets and live more or less happily ever after. It’s the American way.

I don’t know why it is, but nothing seems to work out right. For example, I truly wish I could have been a father before I was a son. I would have been such a better son. Indeed, I think there would be no comparison. Similarly, why do I become more cynical the longer I live. Wouldn’t you think that if there was such a thing as progress you would inevitably become less cynical as you aged, rather than more cynical? And why is it that in virtually any circumstances you can imagine, there is always one or two people who manage to make trouble and keep things from being just pleasant? I find this to have been true ever since I was a cub scout, there’s always one who makes the rest suffer from their egocentricity or megalomania, greed, or stupidity.

LKBIQ:
“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.”
George W. Bush