Michigan nixes tree lover’s
vanity license plate, pinus,
as too close to Penis.
Bubblehead: I believe a Chief of Staff who could have joint Israeli citizenship and who has actively participated in the defense of Israel is not a good choice for a President who claims to want to broker peace between Palestinians and Israelis. I certainly do not believe that Jews are ineligible to be President of the U.S. Indeed, I think that is ridiculous (just as I think Rand Paul is pretty ridiculous). Say what you will about the Palestinians, they are just as human as Israelis but certainly have not been treated as such by the latter who, for the past forty years, have proven themselves to be greedy, imperialistic, racist criminals that defy International Law and even human decency. I should specify the Israeli government, as even many Israeli citizens don’t approve of what they have been doing.
What does sex have to do with it? I am inspired to write about this because of the plight of Nikki Haley, running for governor of South Carolina. Two different men have now claimed to have had extramarital affairs with her; she denies everything and says she would resign if either of them could be proven. So far it just seems to be a case of she said/he said. I have no idea if these claims are true or false, but for the sake of the argument, what if they are true? What does her sex life have to do with whether or not she would be a decent governor?
Similarly, what does anyone’s sex life have to do with how well or poorly they may be able to do their jobs? There have been in the past few years, ever since the end of the Clinton administration, all kinds of sex scandals involving politicians, religious leaders, and others. These have occurred among both Democrats and Republicans, Straits and Gays, although it does seem Republicans have had quite a few more than Democrats. Perhaps this is a form of justice because it was Republicans that started this orgy of looking into people’s private sexual behavior when they tried to impeach Bill Clinton. Interestingly enough they didn’t try to impeach him specifically for sexual behavior, but, rather, for lying about it. In any case, prior to the Clinton tragedy, engineered by Republicans for purely political reasons, the sexual behavior of politicians and most others was not regarded as anyone’s business, reporters did not report on it, and it was a true situation of don’t ask, don’t tell. Everyone knew, for example, that John Kennedy was a notorious womanizer, but this never became an issue while he was President, largely because the Press did not investigate or reveal this sort of thing about public figures.
But since the Republicans opened this can of worms there have been more sex scandals than one can keep track of. Mark Souder of Indiana recently resigned because of having an affair with a staffer. But don’t forget David (Diapers) Vitter, or Eliot (leaves his socks on) Spitzer. Remember that earlier Bob Livingston withdrew from his attempt to become Speaker because his womanizing was about to be revealed, Bob Packwood was forced to resign over allegations about his womanizing, and more recently we have had the cases of Mark Sanford, John Ensign, Jim Bakker, and many, many more. If you look up sex scandals on the internet you can quickly find almost more than you can easily count. And these are only scandals involving heterosexuals.
Among Gays don’t forget Mark (measure it with a ruler for me) Foley, Bob Allen, Glenn Murphy Jr., Jim West, and Ted Haggard, to say nothing of Larry Craig. It seems that now everyone’s sex life is regarded as important with respect to their job performance, although it is not clear why there should be any connection in most cases. Even Tiger Wood’s excesses did not seem to affect his golf game, and who could even venture a guess as to how many women John Kennedy had affairs with? Even Clinton’s “affair” with Monica Lewinsky would almost certainly not have affected his Presidency had the Republicans not used it to try to remove him from office (and thus causing him to have to spend so much time trying to defend himself instead of running the country). As W. Somerset Maugham once said, anyone’s sex life would probably be regarded as shocking were it to be made public. You don’t have to either condone or condemn any of these incidents to know that forty or fifty years ago we would most probably never have become aware of them. And if you think Bill Clinton was the only politician in Washington, D.C. having illicit and perhaps even kinky sex I believe you must be incredibly naïve. These things happen, not only in the nation’s capital but all over the country, and no amount of moralizing or proscribing them is going to make much difference. What I wonder about is why is it that such things suddenly seem to be so more important now than they used to be. Is it merely because we were not formerly made aware of them?
How did we in the U.S. became so fascinated by the sexual behavior of others in recent years, when for many more years before we were not? Is this merely a result of the Republican vendetta against Clinton (whom they couldn’t beat politically), or does it have a much more profound cultural explanation? Europeans for the most part don’t share this fascination, they fully expect their politicians and leaders to have affairs and mistresses and so on, and don’t usually connect their sex lives with their positions of power and influence. Nor are Europeans so weird about nudity, where nude beaches or semi-nude beaches, and even naked hiking takes place without a great deal of fuss. Do Americans really wonder if under those tiny string bikinis and bras some women are really significantly different from others, or do they just not know what is under there, the sight of which would presumably bring down the social order? We are now literally bombarded on a daily basis with sex in one form or another, in advertising, the movies, television, magazines, and newspapers. Erectile dysfunction seems to be virtually ubiquitious, a national epidemic, and female orgasm has become a topic of genuine concern. We have certainly come a long way from when it was considered improper to even comment on a woman’s ankles and they wore body length bathing costumes. Maybe it is also related to the increasing loss of privacy in our lives.
There are, of course, some sexual acts that are not only unusually egregious but might, in fact, affect someone’s ability to perform their job. I should think hitting on underage Pages would come under this category, and perhaps more persistent advances make people so offended they do not care to put up with it any longer, and so on. But most cases, involving extra-marital affairs, one night stands, opportune moments, acts between consenting adults, probably make little difference to anyone other than spouses and while not considered proper are not enough to ruin careers or seriously handicap the participants. This has become a kind of sexual McCarthyism, a game of gotcha, and needs to be toned down a bit.
LKBIQ:
It would be madness to let the purposes or the methods of private enterprise set the habits of the age of atomic energy.
Harold Laski
TILT:
The last purebred male Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit died in March of 2006.
Friday, June 04, 2010
Thursday, June 03, 2010
He's done it again!
Wisconsin man gets
30 months probation
for stealing dirty diapers.
Bubbblehead: I guess you are one of those who believe that anyone critical of Israel must be anti-Semitic. I have been very careful never to even use the word “Jew,” when commenting on the terrible Israeli/Palestinian problem. You have consistently used the term even though I have not (if I ever did it must have been exceedingly rare and unusual). I did not say Emanuel was in the Israeli military, I said he served with it, and as you acknowledge he does have at least the right to Israeli citizenship. I stick with what I said, he was a poor choice if Obama is to act as a neutral peacemaker between Israel and the Palestinians. I can’t stand Pat Buchanan, first of all he’s a Republican, and second he’s a terrible bigot. Even so I don’t think Israel is without fault, in fact a lot of fault, when it comes to the situation in the Middle East. Take your simple-minded anti-Semitic accusations somewhere else.
He’s done it again! Ex President George W. Bush admitted once again in public that he waterboarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and added that he would do it again if it would save lives. Leave aside for the moment the question of whether it saved lives (it apparently did not), and leaving aside the issue of whether torture even potentially can save lives (experts think not), waterboarding has been regarded for many years as torture. Torture is illegal according to U.S. law and a war crime in International law. So…Bush has admitted once again to being a war criminal. There is no doubt about the war crimes committed by Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/and others. They should all be standing trial in the Hague or here in the U.S., but apparently Obama and Holder either don’t pay attention or simply don’t care. This means to me that confessed war criminals in the U.S. will not be held accountable either to morality, ethics, or law. It also suggests to me that when Holder now insists he will hold BP fully accountable for their actions he has no credibility. Personally, I don’t believe the Obama administration has much credibility when it comes to their desire for peace in the Middle East, their desire for an efficient and decent system of health care, confronting the Banks and Insurance Companies, ending the “war” in Afghanistan, stopping oil drilling, or even instigating meaningful change in any important way whatsoever. Things change but stay the same: more “war,” more secrecy, more debt, more huge mergers, more oil drilling, more environmental damage, more neglect of education, superstructure, poverty, immigration, foreclosures, more gifts to the corporations, more defense of the Israeli criminals, more war profiteering, and what have you. This is not to say Obama has done nothing, he has, but given what he is up against (corporate power, the party of NO, conservative Democrats, two “wars,” national debt, oil spill disaster, etc., etc., it is a wonder he has managed to do anything at all).
I realize what a crisis would be created if Bush/Cheney were to be tried for war crimes. I know that it has always been the practice of an incoming administration to not investigate the previous administration, but when have we ever previously had an administration that not only admits to war crimes but actually boasts about them? Perhaps this is a confrontation long overdue in U.S. politics. Obviously Obama’s critics would immediately complain that it was just politics, but it would not be about politics but about war crimes. Anyway it’s not going to happen. It’s just like good ol’ Joe Stalin said: “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.”
And speaking of unprecedented matters, when have we ever had a minority party that simply refuses to perform the duties they were elected to perform, refuse to cooperate in any way, and just say NO to everything that needs to be done for the country? Once the Republicans announced their pride in being the party of NO their pay should have been suspended until such time as they agreed to do their duty (I do not believe saying NO automatically to everything is doing their duty). What is worse, they have made no secret of wanting the Obama administration to fail. I see only a thin line between this attitude and outright treason.
As far as the lunatic fringe is concerned I doubt they will have much permanent effect upon much of anything, in spite of Chris Matthew’s attempt to make them more threatening than they really are. There has always been a lunatic fringe, it may be a bit larger at the moment than usual, and it may be more hostile than usual, but as they have no clear cut goals that make any sense, or any leaders that make much much sense either, I can’t see how they can succeed at anything (I am often wrong but I doubt I’m wrong about this). Who is going to lead them, Sarah, who is nothing but mouth? Romney the lying Mormon? Huckabee, a religious nut case, Gingrich, the pontificating hypocrite, McCain the senile loser, maybe Jeb Bush, another Bush? It seems to me this jolly band of teabaggers is intent on destroying whatever is left of the Republican Party, a party I have never liked or respected, but at least a party that once consisted of relatively sane, serious politicians (with perhaps honest but terribly misguided and false beliefs about government).
LKBIQ:
I think we agree, the past is over.
George W. Bush
TILT:
Spitting cobras do not actually spit their venom.
30 months probation
for stealing dirty diapers.
Bubbblehead: I guess you are one of those who believe that anyone critical of Israel must be anti-Semitic. I have been very careful never to even use the word “Jew,” when commenting on the terrible Israeli/Palestinian problem. You have consistently used the term even though I have not (if I ever did it must have been exceedingly rare and unusual). I did not say Emanuel was in the Israeli military, I said he served with it, and as you acknowledge he does have at least the right to Israeli citizenship. I stick with what I said, he was a poor choice if Obama is to act as a neutral peacemaker between Israel and the Palestinians. I can’t stand Pat Buchanan, first of all he’s a Republican, and second he’s a terrible bigot. Even so I don’t think Israel is without fault, in fact a lot of fault, when it comes to the situation in the Middle East. Take your simple-minded anti-Semitic accusations somewhere else.
He’s done it again! Ex President George W. Bush admitted once again in public that he waterboarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and added that he would do it again if it would save lives. Leave aside for the moment the question of whether it saved lives (it apparently did not), and leaving aside the issue of whether torture even potentially can save lives (experts think not), waterboarding has been regarded for many years as torture. Torture is illegal according to U.S. law and a war crime in International law. So…Bush has admitted once again to being a war criminal. There is no doubt about the war crimes committed by Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/and others. They should all be standing trial in the Hague or here in the U.S., but apparently Obama and Holder either don’t pay attention or simply don’t care. This means to me that confessed war criminals in the U.S. will not be held accountable either to morality, ethics, or law. It also suggests to me that when Holder now insists he will hold BP fully accountable for their actions he has no credibility. Personally, I don’t believe the Obama administration has much credibility when it comes to their desire for peace in the Middle East, their desire for an efficient and decent system of health care, confronting the Banks and Insurance Companies, ending the “war” in Afghanistan, stopping oil drilling, or even instigating meaningful change in any important way whatsoever. Things change but stay the same: more “war,” more secrecy, more debt, more huge mergers, more oil drilling, more environmental damage, more neglect of education, superstructure, poverty, immigration, foreclosures, more gifts to the corporations, more defense of the Israeli criminals, more war profiteering, and what have you. This is not to say Obama has done nothing, he has, but given what he is up against (corporate power, the party of NO, conservative Democrats, two “wars,” national debt, oil spill disaster, etc., etc., it is a wonder he has managed to do anything at all).
I realize what a crisis would be created if Bush/Cheney were to be tried for war crimes. I know that it has always been the practice of an incoming administration to not investigate the previous administration, but when have we ever previously had an administration that not only admits to war crimes but actually boasts about them? Perhaps this is a confrontation long overdue in U.S. politics. Obviously Obama’s critics would immediately complain that it was just politics, but it would not be about politics but about war crimes. Anyway it’s not going to happen. It’s just like good ol’ Joe Stalin said: “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.”
And speaking of unprecedented matters, when have we ever had a minority party that simply refuses to perform the duties they were elected to perform, refuse to cooperate in any way, and just say NO to everything that needs to be done for the country? Once the Republicans announced their pride in being the party of NO their pay should have been suspended until such time as they agreed to do their duty (I do not believe saying NO automatically to everything is doing their duty). What is worse, they have made no secret of wanting the Obama administration to fail. I see only a thin line between this attitude and outright treason.
As far as the lunatic fringe is concerned I doubt they will have much permanent effect upon much of anything, in spite of Chris Matthew’s attempt to make them more threatening than they really are. There has always been a lunatic fringe, it may be a bit larger at the moment than usual, and it may be more hostile than usual, but as they have no clear cut goals that make any sense, or any leaders that make much much sense either, I can’t see how they can succeed at anything (I am often wrong but I doubt I’m wrong about this). Who is going to lead them, Sarah, who is nothing but mouth? Romney the lying Mormon? Huckabee, a religious nut case, Gingrich, the pontificating hypocrite, McCain the senile loser, maybe Jeb Bush, another Bush? It seems to me this jolly band of teabaggers is intent on destroying whatever is left of the Republican Party, a party I have never liked or respected, but at least a party that once consisted of relatively sane, serious politicians (with perhaps honest but terribly misguided and false beliefs about government).
LKBIQ:
I think we agree, the past is over.
George W. Bush
TILT:
Spitting cobras do not actually spit their venom.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
The Last Straw?
Florida man, 32, calls 911,
wants Mom arrested
for taking his beer.
Can the United States sink any lower in world opinion? I think Obama’s support for the Israeli attack on the peaceful flotilla attempting to bring aid to the people in Gaza may be the last straw. The entire International Community is outraged at what the Israelis have done – except, of course, the United States. Obama has apparently threatened to veto any attempt to censure or punish anyone for this cowardly and illegal attack on ships in International waters. I guess there is nothing the Israelis can do, no matter how vile, illegal, immoral, disgusting, racist, and completely wrong that the U. S. will not support. This makes us International criminals along with the Israelis. Does anyone really care? Is there really nothing that can be done to keep the Israelis from breaking International laws over and over again? What is this seemingly hypnotic power they hold over us? How can the U.S. and Obama talk of peace in the Middle East when there can never be peace as long as the Israelis persist in stealing Palestinian land and water and no one does anything to stop them? Our unrestricted support of Israel is nothing short of shameful. It is wrong, wrong-headed, stupid, unproductive, anti-peace, and in fact ultimately detrimental to both ourselves and the Israelis. But, then, what might we have expected when Obama named Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff, a man who has, as I understand it, dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship and served for a time with the Israeli military. It is perfectly obvious by now to anyone with even a tiny brain that the U.S. cannot be an unbiased broker of peace between the Palestinians and Israel. As the U.S. presumably is the only nation that could broker a peace we can just forget about it and allow the Israelis to continue their slow genocide of the million and a half Palestinians they have forced into the ghetto called Gaza. Netanyahu’s excuses for the attack are simply pathetic: people on the ships attacked the Israeli commandos (utterly absurd), they had to search the ships for weapons (ridiculous, they had to know the ships would not have been carrying weapons), Israel has a right to defend itself (from ships designed to bring aid to a needy people), they had a legal right to the blockade (only during a state of war which does not exist), and I don’t know what else.
Eric Holder, our Attorney General, is now talking tough, real tough, about both civil and criminal investigations of BP and holding them fully accountable. I’ll believe it when I see it. What I find particularly laughable about Holder’s claim is that he will fully prosecute anyone who has broken the law -- except, of course, George Bush and Dick Cheney, who not only broke the law but are admitted war criminals. I sincerely hope that Holder will investigate and prosecute BP if they are found guilty of criminal acts (we already know they are), but I fear this may turn out to be just talk because the Obama administration has to disengage themselves from their cooperation with BP for political reasons. As BP has more money than most nations, as well as entire armies of lawyers, they will tie everything up in court until doomsday (and I mean literally doomsday which may not be so far away).
I suspect that just as it is truly impossible to conceive of trillions of dollars, it is probably equally impossible to truly imagine the horror that will result from this BP oil leak before it is over (leak is not really the right word, volcanic eruption might be more descriptive). I am not comforted by learning that the two alternative holes being drilled, widely touted as sure to succeed, are not at all guaranteed to succeed. Similarly, I am not pleased to learn that in a worst case scenario there may be no end until Christmas.
LKBIQ:
If I didn’t start painting, I would have raised chickens.
Grandma Moses
TILT:
Besides man, Barbary apes (really monkeys) are the only primates that live freely in Europe.
wants Mom arrested
for taking his beer.
Can the United States sink any lower in world opinion? I think Obama’s support for the Israeli attack on the peaceful flotilla attempting to bring aid to the people in Gaza may be the last straw. The entire International Community is outraged at what the Israelis have done – except, of course, the United States. Obama has apparently threatened to veto any attempt to censure or punish anyone for this cowardly and illegal attack on ships in International waters. I guess there is nothing the Israelis can do, no matter how vile, illegal, immoral, disgusting, racist, and completely wrong that the U. S. will not support. This makes us International criminals along with the Israelis. Does anyone really care? Is there really nothing that can be done to keep the Israelis from breaking International laws over and over again? What is this seemingly hypnotic power they hold over us? How can the U.S. and Obama talk of peace in the Middle East when there can never be peace as long as the Israelis persist in stealing Palestinian land and water and no one does anything to stop them? Our unrestricted support of Israel is nothing short of shameful. It is wrong, wrong-headed, stupid, unproductive, anti-peace, and in fact ultimately detrimental to both ourselves and the Israelis. But, then, what might we have expected when Obama named Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff, a man who has, as I understand it, dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship and served for a time with the Israeli military. It is perfectly obvious by now to anyone with even a tiny brain that the U.S. cannot be an unbiased broker of peace between the Palestinians and Israel. As the U.S. presumably is the only nation that could broker a peace we can just forget about it and allow the Israelis to continue their slow genocide of the million and a half Palestinians they have forced into the ghetto called Gaza. Netanyahu’s excuses for the attack are simply pathetic: people on the ships attacked the Israeli commandos (utterly absurd), they had to search the ships for weapons (ridiculous, they had to know the ships would not have been carrying weapons), Israel has a right to defend itself (from ships designed to bring aid to a needy people), they had a legal right to the blockade (only during a state of war which does not exist), and I don’t know what else.
Eric Holder, our Attorney General, is now talking tough, real tough, about both civil and criminal investigations of BP and holding them fully accountable. I’ll believe it when I see it. What I find particularly laughable about Holder’s claim is that he will fully prosecute anyone who has broken the law -- except, of course, George Bush and Dick Cheney, who not only broke the law but are admitted war criminals. I sincerely hope that Holder will investigate and prosecute BP if they are found guilty of criminal acts (we already know they are), but I fear this may turn out to be just talk because the Obama administration has to disengage themselves from their cooperation with BP for political reasons. As BP has more money than most nations, as well as entire armies of lawyers, they will tie everything up in court until doomsday (and I mean literally doomsday which may not be so far away).
I suspect that just as it is truly impossible to conceive of trillions of dollars, it is probably equally impossible to truly imagine the horror that will result from this BP oil leak before it is over (leak is not really the right word, volcanic eruption might be more descriptive). I am not comforted by learning that the two alternative holes being drilled, widely touted as sure to succeed, are not at all guaranteed to succeed. Similarly, I am not pleased to learn that in a worst case scenario there may be no end until Christmas.
LKBIQ:
If I didn’t start painting, I would have raised chickens.
Grandma Moses
TILT:
Besides man, Barbary apes (really monkeys) are the only primates that live freely in Europe.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
I'm Back
My computer somehow acquired a #$@!%*&$*!#$@%!! virus. It has taken my wife (bless her) almost three days to get rid of it. I was unable to blog, which was probably just as well because I am so infuriated by the Israeli criminal, murderous attack on the convoy trying to bring aid to the Palestinians. The entire world is outraged by this immoral attack and if Obama supports it he will have lost any respect he might have had from anyone. This seems to me to be the last straw. Israel has had their way far too long and have thumbed their nose at the U.S. and the International community repeatedly, always with the uncritical support of the U.S. Now is the time to put an end to this once and for all. They should be forced to settle fairly with the Palestinians on a Palestinian state and no longer allowed to ride roughshod over both morality and legality. They will come up with another cock and bull story about how it is they are just defending themselves from the terrible Palestinians and blah, blah, blah as usual, while they continue their greedy land and water grab and violate even the most basic tenets of humanity.
Watch how quickly this dastardly attack disappears from the MSM, Israel can't be held accountable for anything no matter how outrageous.
Of course the main story for the past 43 days has been BP's horrible oil spill that never should have been allowed to happen in the first place, and should never be allowed to happen again ever. Offshore drilling should not be permitted, period. They obviously do not know how to control it and the potential danger far outways the oil we will get from it. Let us by all means get serious about weaning ourselves from oil. It can be done. But it won't be done with leaders who just go along with whatever lies they are told about how safe it is and how much we desperately need the oil, and all the rest of the corporate lies we are fed on a daily basis.
I have been a bit depressed over all this. My computer has been down, it rains every day so I have not been able to work in the garden, I had a book but I couldn't understand it, television, with the exception of Rachel Maddow, is truly a wasteland you would have to be insane to watch, and I am not enjoying being a member of the one and only criminal species. What do you think all the other species would do if they had the right to vote? It's not pleasant to think about.
I will try to get back to some semblance of normal.
Watch how quickly this dastardly attack disappears from the MSM, Israel can't be held accountable for anything no matter how outrageous.
Of course the main story for the past 43 days has been BP's horrible oil spill that never should have been allowed to happen in the first place, and should never be allowed to happen again ever. Offshore drilling should not be permitted, period. They obviously do not know how to control it and the potential danger far outways the oil we will get from it. Let us by all means get serious about weaning ourselves from oil. It can be done. But it won't be done with leaders who just go along with whatever lies they are told about how safe it is and how much we desperately need the oil, and all the rest of the corporate lies we are fed on a daily basis.
I have been a bit depressed over all this. My computer has been down, it rains every day so I have not been able to work in the garden, I had a book but I couldn't understand it, television, with the exception of Rachel Maddow, is truly a wasteland you would have to be insane to watch, and I am not enjoying being a member of the one and only criminal species. What do you think all the other species would do if they had the right to vote? It's not pleasant to think about.
I will try to get back to some semblance of normal.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Enough Already!
Man fined $65 for allowing
uncontrolled pet python to
excercise in hotel hallways.
Enough already! How much longer is idiocy going to prevail? Somebody do something! Our ridiculous “war” in Afghanistan continues even though our soldiers don’t even know precisely who the enemy is. The Taliban, who just want us to get out of their country, seem to be growing stronger and more successful with each passing day. We are spending ourselves into national bankruptcy, failure, and disgrace for a cause no one believes we can ever “win,” and if our efforts have a purpose it is being kept secret (although we can surmise it has something to do with regime change in Iran, making sure our evil empire continues to try to control events in the Middle East, and desperately clinging to our claim of being the greatest country on earth, while merely managing it in the best interests of the ruling international corporations.
Turkey and Brazil managed to get Iran to agree to something the United States originally proposed, but now that they have done so they are being castigated for it (how could any other countries have the temerity to try to bring about peace and avoid war in the Middle East). This indicates pretty clearly that it is not an end to Iran’s (perfectly legal) processing of uranium that we seek, but, rather, regime change. Iran, contrary to the big lie the Israelis keep promoting, is not a threat to the U.S., the world, or realistically, even Israel. But whatever Israel wants, Israel gets (from the United States). We continue to allow Israel to commit even the most terrible war crimes and even collaborate in them. Having herded thousands upon thousands of Palestinians into a ghetto called Gaza they are systematically starving and slowly killing them at will, all with the compliance of the U.S. They continue to bomb and assassinate them, and even now the Israeli navy is going to keep aid ships from delivering aid of any kind, including toys for their children, with the incredible, jaw-dropping and utterly false claim there are no hardships in Gaza.
And how about this for trying to fool all the people all of the time, we have now signed on to a plan to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone, but we don’t want to single out Israel for non-compliance. But Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has any nuclear weapons, and as long as Israel has these weapons, and as they always do whatever they wish, thumbing their nose at the U.N. and even the U.S. whenever they feel like it, what are the chances of ever having a nuclear-free zone? Of course as the Obama administration has preached nuclear disarmament, they could not very well have refused to sign on to this plan for the Middle East, even though there is no chance Israel can be made to comply. It’s merely an attempt to make people believe we are actually trying to bring about the abolition of nuclear weapons while we and the Israelis continue to develop and maintain them, hypocrisy at its very best.
We are well on the way to becoming a third-rate nation. This can be allowed because nations and national interests no longer control the world and vie for power and position. The world is now under the control of a small number of huge international corporations whose annual incomes exceed those of most, if not all nations (probably even the U.S. if you subtract our national debt from the equation). These gigantic corporations are so wealthy and so powerful they can act with impunity, as BP is doing at the moment. You may be told that BP will be entirely responsible for the horrible disaster they have wrought, but considering that the Exxon-Valdez spill has yet to be settled twenty years after the fact, and considering that the BP lawyers are already hard at work, don’t bet even a nickel on their being held solely responsible for the crime they have committed, and don’t believe the taxpayers will get away without paying. And do not forget that our Congresspersons no longer represent we the people, they represent their corporate masters and will do their bidding no matter what. Democracy, as the term applied to the government of the United States, is a laughable farce that has slowly and insidiously over time been converted into a charade that masks the grim reality that hides in the shadows and persistently and hungrily eats away at human worth and dignity. Democracy is dead. Long live Kleptocracy!
Surprise! Top Kill has failed. Stay tuned for the next questionable experiment while the Gulf keeps on dying. Hey, it’s only the Gulf of Mexico, who needs it? It’s not as if it’s the whole planet. Accidents do happen, especially when you are recklessly 98% accident prone. Don’t worry, next time will be different, probably even worse. Stupid is as stupid does.
LKBIQ:
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
H. L. Mencken
TILT:
The coconut is a fruit, not a nut.
uncontrolled pet python to
excercise in hotel hallways.
Enough already! How much longer is idiocy going to prevail? Somebody do something! Our ridiculous “war” in Afghanistan continues even though our soldiers don’t even know precisely who the enemy is. The Taliban, who just want us to get out of their country, seem to be growing stronger and more successful with each passing day. We are spending ourselves into national bankruptcy, failure, and disgrace for a cause no one believes we can ever “win,” and if our efforts have a purpose it is being kept secret (although we can surmise it has something to do with regime change in Iran, making sure our evil empire continues to try to control events in the Middle East, and desperately clinging to our claim of being the greatest country on earth, while merely managing it in the best interests of the ruling international corporations.
Turkey and Brazil managed to get Iran to agree to something the United States originally proposed, but now that they have done so they are being castigated for it (how could any other countries have the temerity to try to bring about peace and avoid war in the Middle East). This indicates pretty clearly that it is not an end to Iran’s (perfectly legal) processing of uranium that we seek, but, rather, regime change. Iran, contrary to the big lie the Israelis keep promoting, is not a threat to the U.S., the world, or realistically, even Israel. But whatever Israel wants, Israel gets (from the United States). We continue to allow Israel to commit even the most terrible war crimes and even collaborate in them. Having herded thousands upon thousands of Palestinians into a ghetto called Gaza they are systematically starving and slowly killing them at will, all with the compliance of the U.S. They continue to bomb and assassinate them, and even now the Israeli navy is going to keep aid ships from delivering aid of any kind, including toys for their children, with the incredible, jaw-dropping and utterly false claim there are no hardships in Gaza.
And how about this for trying to fool all the people all of the time, we have now signed on to a plan to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone, but we don’t want to single out Israel for non-compliance. But Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has any nuclear weapons, and as long as Israel has these weapons, and as they always do whatever they wish, thumbing their nose at the U.N. and even the U.S. whenever they feel like it, what are the chances of ever having a nuclear-free zone? Of course as the Obama administration has preached nuclear disarmament, they could not very well have refused to sign on to this plan for the Middle East, even though there is no chance Israel can be made to comply. It’s merely an attempt to make people believe we are actually trying to bring about the abolition of nuclear weapons while we and the Israelis continue to develop and maintain them, hypocrisy at its very best.
We are well on the way to becoming a third-rate nation. This can be allowed because nations and national interests no longer control the world and vie for power and position. The world is now under the control of a small number of huge international corporations whose annual incomes exceed those of most, if not all nations (probably even the U.S. if you subtract our national debt from the equation). These gigantic corporations are so wealthy and so powerful they can act with impunity, as BP is doing at the moment. You may be told that BP will be entirely responsible for the horrible disaster they have wrought, but considering that the Exxon-Valdez spill has yet to be settled twenty years after the fact, and considering that the BP lawyers are already hard at work, don’t bet even a nickel on their being held solely responsible for the crime they have committed, and don’t believe the taxpayers will get away without paying. And do not forget that our Congresspersons no longer represent we the people, they represent their corporate masters and will do their bidding no matter what. Democracy, as the term applied to the government of the United States, is a laughable farce that has slowly and insidiously over time been converted into a charade that masks the grim reality that hides in the shadows and persistently and hungrily eats away at human worth and dignity. Democracy is dead. Long live Kleptocracy!
Surprise! Top Kill has failed. Stay tuned for the next questionable experiment while the Gulf keeps on dying. Hey, it’s only the Gulf of Mexico, who needs it? It’s not as if it’s the whole planet. Accidents do happen, especially when you are recklessly 98% accident prone. Don’t worry, next time will be different, probably even worse. Stupid is as stupid does.
LKBIQ:
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
H. L. Mencken
TILT:
The coconut is a fruit, not a nut.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Do Ask, Don't Tell
Two North Carolina surgeons
reprimanded for performing
C-section on woman not pregnant.
There seems to be a variation on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell that politicians have been using for years. That is, encouraging people to ask questions but not telling them meaningful or intelligible answers. A classic example of this can be seen in President Obama’s press conference this morning. He encouraged Helen Thomas to ask her question, which she did, about why we are still in Afghanistan. He then gave a reply that was so evasive, so blatantly untrue, so ridiculously simple-minded and useless he might as well have just refused to answer. He said something to the effect that we were there because of al Quaida and the threat they posed to us. This is, of course, utter nonsense. First of all, al Quaida is not much of a threat when you consider they are a relatively small group of Muslim extremists who engage in terrorist activities rather than full-scale military attacks. They are, in effect, criminals rather than soldiers fighting a conventional war. Furthermore, there is now said to be perhaps no more than 100 or so in Afghanistan. There is no way to explain our billion dollar a month (or whatever it is) expense to fight al Quaida. And now we are supposedly fighting the Taliban who were never and are not now a threat to the U.S., wanting us merely to get out of their country. So whatever it is that is keeping the “war” going in Afghanistan cannot simply be because of al Quaida. I suppose if you want to know why we’re there you might want to follow the money. Who gains from our phony “war” halfway around the globe? The military/industrial/political complex no doubt gains the most. Additionally, it allows us to maintain our presence in the area and attempt to maintain control of the Middle East, that glorious land swimming in oil. I saw today on the web that the Afghans believe we may actually be funding the Taliban in order to keep the conflict going. A few years ago I would have dismissed an accusation like this as nonsense, but now I’m not at all certain it is not entirely possible. I suspect this is much the same reason we have never captured or killed bin Laden as we need him, along with the Taliban, to give us an excuse to continue our otherwise inexplicable continuation of this stupid “war.”
As far as the press conference went (sans Helen’s question) I thought Obama did as well as possible under the circumstances. After all, it’s not easy to explain and/or defend the idiocy of our government when it comes to their oversight of corporate behavior. They are, unhappily, not truly interested in what is good for the country or the citizens anymore, only in what their corporate masters require of them in return for their largesse. It is not surprising that people, especially Republicans, are trying to blame Obama for this disaster, they would blame him if the sun didn’t rise in the morning. Is it really Obama’s fault that the supposed regulators were literally in bed with and sharing drugs with the oil executives? Is it Obama’s fault that BP lied consistently about the spill? Is it Obama’s fault that the U.S. government does not have the technological know-how or the required machinery to deal with deep ocean oil drilling and thus is completely dependent upon BP and other oil giants for such equipment? The fact that this is so is shameful, short-sighted, and stupid beyond belief, but it clearly is not the fault of Obama who has, in fact, tried to clean up the mess he inherited from the previous Oil administration. It is not at all clear what more Obama could have done once the disaster occurred. Obama claims, and I have no reason to dispute him, that the many suggestions that were made were considered and either followed or rejected as being worthy or not, dredging giant berms, for example, or having fleets of tankers skimming the oil. James Carville, one of the loudest of the political whores, apparently wanted Obama to travel to the Gulf to scream out “I’m in charge, I’m in charge.” I guess he thinks this would have soothed people and made them feel better while the oil crept closer and closer to the marshes that can probably never be cleaned up and restored. There may well have been some bad decisions made but I don’t think it’s true that the Obama administration did not act quickly enough, and with a disaster the size of this one it cannot be surprising that mistakes may have been made. In my opinion, such as it is, the problem is that this deep sea drilling should never have been allowed in the first place when it is quite clear they did not know exactly what they were doing, and what they are doing now to stop the flow is basically still experimental. As far as future drilling in the deep ocean is concerned they should forget about it. It is time to break our addiction to oil once and for all. We should do it now, not a few years from now. Would it really hurt that much to make a serious effort to actually conserve energy? I don’t see much in the way of attempts to turn off some lights or begin effective public transportation or reign in the destructive waste of gas and oil in gas guzzling recreation vehicles, demolition derbies, and other wasteful activities. And think of all the energy that might be saved if we would admit that our ongoing “wars,” even our secret empire, have no real purpose other than wasting lives and resources, mainly in our insane demands for the control of more and more oil.
Some are already claiming that the only way we can overcome our massive national debt is to do away with social security and medicare. This strikes me as a bit disingenuous as these are no doubt the same people who have tried to do away with such programs from the very beginning. How is it that no one suggests we get out of debt by ending our stupid “wars,” and our obscenely bloated military budget. I repeat once again my neighbors comment, “Who knows what goes on in the mind of baboons?”
LKBIQ:
It is wise to remember that you are one of those who can be fooled some of the time.
Laurence J. Peter
TILT:
The long-tongued female orchid bee pollinates the Brazil nut tree.
reprimanded for performing
C-section on woman not pregnant.
There seems to be a variation on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell that politicians have been using for years. That is, encouraging people to ask questions but not telling them meaningful or intelligible answers. A classic example of this can be seen in President Obama’s press conference this morning. He encouraged Helen Thomas to ask her question, which she did, about why we are still in Afghanistan. He then gave a reply that was so evasive, so blatantly untrue, so ridiculously simple-minded and useless he might as well have just refused to answer. He said something to the effect that we were there because of al Quaida and the threat they posed to us. This is, of course, utter nonsense. First of all, al Quaida is not much of a threat when you consider they are a relatively small group of Muslim extremists who engage in terrorist activities rather than full-scale military attacks. They are, in effect, criminals rather than soldiers fighting a conventional war. Furthermore, there is now said to be perhaps no more than 100 or so in Afghanistan. There is no way to explain our billion dollar a month (or whatever it is) expense to fight al Quaida. And now we are supposedly fighting the Taliban who were never and are not now a threat to the U.S., wanting us merely to get out of their country. So whatever it is that is keeping the “war” going in Afghanistan cannot simply be because of al Quaida. I suppose if you want to know why we’re there you might want to follow the money. Who gains from our phony “war” halfway around the globe? The military/industrial/political complex no doubt gains the most. Additionally, it allows us to maintain our presence in the area and attempt to maintain control of the Middle East, that glorious land swimming in oil. I saw today on the web that the Afghans believe we may actually be funding the Taliban in order to keep the conflict going. A few years ago I would have dismissed an accusation like this as nonsense, but now I’m not at all certain it is not entirely possible. I suspect this is much the same reason we have never captured or killed bin Laden as we need him, along with the Taliban, to give us an excuse to continue our otherwise inexplicable continuation of this stupid “war.”
As far as the press conference went (sans Helen’s question) I thought Obama did as well as possible under the circumstances. After all, it’s not easy to explain and/or defend the idiocy of our government when it comes to their oversight of corporate behavior. They are, unhappily, not truly interested in what is good for the country or the citizens anymore, only in what their corporate masters require of them in return for their largesse. It is not surprising that people, especially Republicans, are trying to blame Obama for this disaster, they would blame him if the sun didn’t rise in the morning. Is it really Obama’s fault that the supposed regulators were literally in bed with and sharing drugs with the oil executives? Is it Obama’s fault that BP lied consistently about the spill? Is it Obama’s fault that the U.S. government does not have the technological know-how or the required machinery to deal with deep ocean oil drilling and thus is completely dependent upon BP and other oil giants for such equipment? The fact that this is so is shameful, short-sighted, and stupid beyond belief, but it clearly is not the fault of Obama who has, in fact, tried to clean up the mess he inherited from the previous Oil administration. It is not at all clear what more Obama could have done once the disaster occurred. Obama claims, and I have no reason to dispute him, that the many suggestions that were made were considered and either followed or rejected as being worthy or not, dredging giant berms, for example, or having fleets of tankers skimming the oil. James Carville, one of the loudest of the political whores, apparently wanted Obama to travel to the Gulf to scream out “I’m in charge, I’m in charge.” I guess he thinks this would have soothed people and made them feel better while the oil crept closer and closer to the marshes that can probably never be cleaned up and restored. There may well have been some bad decisions made but I don’t think it’s true that the Obama administration did not act quickly enough, and with a disaster the size of this one it cannot be surprising that mistakes may have been made. In my opinion, such as it is, the problem is that this deep sea drilling should never have been allowed in the first place when it is quite clear they did not know exactly what they were doing, and what they are doing now to stop the flow is basically still experimental. As far as future drilling in the deep ocean is concerned they should forget about it. It is time to break our addiction to oil once and for all. We should do it now, not a few years from now. Would it really hurt that much to make a serious effort to actually conserve energy? I don’t see much in the way of attempts to turn off some lights or begin effective public transportation or reign in the destructive waste of gas and oil in gas guzzling recreation vehicles, demolition derbies, and other wasteful activities. And think of all the energy that might be saved if we would admit that our ongoing “wars,” even our secret empire, have no real purpose other than wasting lives and resources, mainly in our insane demands for the control of more and more oil.
Some are already claiming that the only way we can overcome our massive national debt is to do away with social security and medicare. This strikes me as a bit disingenuous as these are no doubt the same people who have tried to do away with such programs from the very beginning. How is it that no one suggests we get out of debt by ending our stupid “wars,” and our obscenely bloated military budget. I repeat once again my neighbors comment, “Who knows what goes on in the mind of baboons?”
LKBIQ:
It is wise to remember that you are one of those who can be fooled some of the time.
Laurence J. Peter
TILT:
The long-tongued female orchid bee pollinates the Brazil nut tree.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Always Too Late
German bank robbers miscalculate
explosives to blow open door,
destroy the entire building.
How is it that we here in the United States are virtually always late when it comes to disasters or other problems? And if we are not too late we are almost always almost too late. We were, for example, too late to save the Passenger Pigeons, and almost too late to save the Buffalo. Now we are either too late or almost too late to save many other species, the pygmy rabbits, the salmon, the burbot, the sturgeon, and on and on. We seem to be perennially too late to stop bad drugs from making it onto the market, waiting until many people have ill effects before taking action. We were too late in entering WW II, and would have been way too late had Roosevelt not acted when he did. We were too late in Korea and Vietnam where much of the tragedy could have been avoided or at least moderated. We were too late in confronting Joe McCarthy and his witch hunts that ruined the lives of many completely innocent people, often writers, actors, and University Professors. Of course we were too late to deal effectively with Katrina, too late to build adequate dikes, too late to provide aid and comfort, just too late as always. Now we are too late to deal with the BP disaster. Even if the well is shut down it is well after the proverbial horse is out of the barn, with millions of gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf and now into the marshes where it can never be cleaned up. And it may be much worse before it is over. This is something that could have been prevented, just as many other things could be prevented if we had the foresight to pay attention to what is about to happen before it happens. And we don’t seem to learn from experience. People in power are still talking about and preparing for more offshore drilling even though it should certainly be obvious by now that deep-water drilling is little more than a gamble and we are not really prepared to deal with potential problems. The people who are insisting we continue say we desperately need the oil, but the amount of oil we produce is really quite minimum compared to what we waste on a daily basis.
Anyway, there seems to be something about Americans that makes us do things before we carefully consider all the potential consequences, a kind of recklessness like the “shoot first and ask questions later,” attitude that goes along with the romantic myths of our frontier and western past. We seem to be more willing to take risks than many other people. In some parts of the world if there is a potential dangerous risk in doing something it is avoided until all possibilities outcomes are considered. Even in the New Guinea Highlands when I worked there the so-called “primitive people” were more adverse to risk than we are. When Tilapia were introduced, for example, to provide a much needed source of protein for them, they refused to eat them because, they said, “the little bones might get in the throats of our children.” A visitor from Africa is reported to have responded in astonishment that anyone would buy and eat a chicken when they did not know who raised it and where it came from. We continue to use certain drugs and chemicals even though we know they have been banned in other countries. The crap they have been spraying on the oil is a case in point, it is illegal in England. Is this some kind of character flaw in the American character, or is there perhaps another explanation? It probably has to do with our reckless approach to our economy where many want everything privatized, energy, transportation, medical care, agriculture, even social security (if they could) with no apparent realization that some things are far too important to be privatized and the consequences of privatization are actually quite harmful to the citizenry. So, in our endless pursuit of profit through unregulated capitalism we drill for oil where we don’t know what we are doing, we remove entire mountain tops in pursuit of coal and push the waste and debris into our rivers, rivers which are themselves polluted with mercury and worse, we practice corporate farming even though we know it is harmful to the earth, build dams without foresight enough to think of the fish, and allow species to disappear without knowing what possible benefits might accrue by not allowing them to go extinct. In short, we act stupidly and without sufficient foresight, and we do it over and over again.
LKBIQ:
“The white men were many and we could not hold our own with them. We were like deer. They were like grizzly bears. We had a small country. Their country was large. We were contented to let things remain as the Great Spirit made them. They were not, and would change the rivers and mountains if they did not suit them.”
Chief Joseph
TILT:
Female cassowaries do not incubate their eggs but move on to lay eggs in several nests where the males care for them.
explosives to blow open door,
destroy the entire building.
How is it that we here in the United States are virtually always late when it comes to disasters or other problems? And if we are not too late we are almost always almost too late. We were, for example, too late to save the Passenger Pigeons, and almost too late to save the Buffalo. Now we are either too late or almost too late to save many other species, the pygmy rabbits, the salmon, the burbot, the sturgeon, and on and on. We seem to be perennially too late to stop bad drugs from making it onto the market, waiting until many people have ill effects before taking action. We were too late in entering WW II, and would have been way too late had Roosevelt not acted when he did. We were too late in Korea and Vietnam where much of the tragedy could have been avoided or at least moderated. We were too late in confronting Joe McCarthy and his witch hunts that ruined the lives of many completely innocent people, often writers, actors, and University Professors. Of course we were too late to deal effectively with Katrina, too late to build adequate dikes, too late to provide aid and comfort, just too late as always. Now we are too late to deal with the BP disaster. Even if the well is shut down it is well after the proverbial horse is out of the barn, with millions of gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf and now into the marshes where it can never be cleaned up. And it may be much worse before it is over. This is something that could have been prevented, just as many other things could be prevented if we had the foresight to pay attention to what is about to happen before it happens. And we don’t seem to learn from experience. People in power are still talking about and preparing for more offshore drilling even though it should certainly be obvious by now that deep-water drilling is little more than a gamble and we are not really prepared to deal with potential problems. The people who are insisting we continue say we desperately need the oil, but the amount of oil we produce is really quite minimum compared to what we waste on a daily basis.
Anyway, there seems to be something about Americans that makes us do things before we carefully consider all the potential consequences, a kind of recklessness like the “shoot first and ask questions later,” attitude that goes along with the romantic myths of our frontier and western past. We seem to be more willing to take risks than many other people. In some parts of the world if there is a potential dangerous risk in doing something it is avoided until all possibilities outcomes are considered. Even in the New Guinea Highlands when I worked there the so-called “primitive people” were more adverse to risk than we are. When Tilapia were introduced, for example, to provide a much needed source of protein for them, they refused to eat them because, they said, “the little bones might get in the throats of our children.” A visitor from Africa is reported to have responded in astonishment that anyone would buy and eat a chicken when they did not know who raised it and where it came from. We continue to use certain drugs and chemicals even though we know they have been banned in other countries. The crap they have been spraying on the oil is a case in point, it is illegal in England. Is this some kind of character flaw in the American character, or is there perhaps another explanation? It probably has to do with our reckless approach to our economy where many want everything privatized, energy, transportation, medical care, agriculture, even social security (if they could) with no apparent realization that some things are far too important to be privatized and the consequences of privatization are actually quite harmful to the citizenry. So, in our endless pursuit of profit through unregulated capitalism we drill for oil where we don’t know what we are doing, we remove entire mountain tops in pursuit of coal and push the waste and debris into our rivers, rivers which are themselves polluted with mercury and worse, we practice corporate farming even though we know it is harmful to the earth, build dams without foresight enough to think of the fish, and allow species to disappear without knowing what possible benefits might accrue by not allowing them to go extinct. In short, we act stupidly and without sufficient foresight, and we do it over and over again.
LKBIQ:
“The white men were many and we could not hold our own with them. We were like deer. They were like grizzly bears. We had a small country. Their country was large. We were contented to let things remain as the Great Spirit made them. They were not, and would change the rivers and mountains if they did not suit them.”
Chief Joseph
TILT:
Female cassowaries do not incubate their eggs but move on to lay eggs in several nests where the males care for them.
Monday, May 24, 2010
The Fifth Horse
Angry when dinner is not
on the table, West Virginia
man sets his house on fire.
It turns out (surprise) we do not know how to drill safely in deep water. It also turns out we are completely dependent upon the oil companies for whatever technology there is to stop these deep underwater leaks as no one else has such technology, including the U.S. government. So the leak continues pouring thousands upon thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf on a daily basis, and if next Wednesday’s attempt to stop it fails it will probably continue at least until August (by which time so much damage will have been done to the environment and those who depend upon the Gulf resources the damage will be impossible to repair). Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu has said that if anyone has lost their income because of the spill, say $50,000, BP will write them a check for that amount. Similarly, if a business has lost a million dollars they will do likewise. Landrieu has been a recipient of lots of oil money and has defended offshore drilling for a long time. If she believes BP is going to pay everyone dollar for dollar for their losses she is dumber than a post. This is a claim on the same level of credibility that the CEO of BP made today that BP will clean up every drop of oil. Apparently some people are unaware that you can go to hell for lying the same as stealing, they have done plenty of both and no doubt there will be much more to come. This is going to become the worst ecological disaster in history and there is little to be done about it now. It should never have been either attempted or allowed. There is only one way to stop “accidents” like this from happening. Stop offshore drilling now and forever!!! No ifs, ands, or buts.
Sometimes, indeed, lots of times, I cannot believe what I hear. For example, tonight it was announced on the Rachel Maddow show that some deal had been reached whereby Congress would repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell almost immediately, but it would not go into effect until after the Pentagon finished reviewing the situation in the Fall. Does this make any sense? So, like, ah…what happens if the Pentagon reviews it and doesn’t like it? Will it be repealed? I don’t know what this is all about but it certainly seems stupid and pointless.
Dick the Slimy seems to be refreshingly quiet these days. I like it. But I wonder what it has to do with his possibly involvement in the disaster in the Gulf. It has been said that he may have been responsible for BP’s failure to have the proper emergency shut off equipment because “it was too expensive.” I don’t know if this is true but I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if it is. You don’t hear much out of Rumsfeld or Rice these days either, or any number of the others who were responsible for the illegal “war” in Iraq, the torture, and the mess we are currently trying to clean up (if, indeed, we are really trying). Personally, I find it wonderful that I no longer have to listen to their incessant lying, but I still insist they should be held accountable for their monumental crimes. The Bush/Cheney administration was nothing but a gigantic criminal enterprise from the very beginning and some are still repeating rewards from it, not the least of whom are the war profiteers and the industries that provide all the equipment and ammunition that is wasted as quickly as possible so they can make more.
There were no oil spills during biblical times. That is why there are only Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: pestilence (white horse), war (red), famine (black), and death (pale-green). I confess to never having seen a pale-green horse (or a purple cow). All of these are symbolic of evil destructive forces. What could possibly be more evil and destructive than the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Certainly it should deserve a Fifth horse. I suggest brindle as the most appropriate color (brindle is rarely applied to horses but it can be, it certainly beats pale-green).
The Benjamin of Benjamin Netanyahu is complaining that the Palestinians are not fighting fair with their boycott of Israeli products. I must say I find this hysterically funny. Those nasty Palestinians cornered there in their prison-like Gaza strip won’t buy products manufactured by their jailers and the jailers are weeping about it. This is apparently part of the Palestinians new campaign to employ non-violent techniques to acquire a Palestinian state (it may well work). Netanyahu has the chutzpa to accuse them of not fighting fair? He has also once again reiterated his ridiculous claim that Iran is a threat to the entire world. He must have studied Goebbels as he repeats this outrageous lie over and over again.
LKBIQ:
I was not lying. I said things that later on seemed to be untrue.
Richard Nixon,
TILT:
Teflon is the only known surface to which a gecko cannot stick.
on the table, West Virginia
man sets his house on fire.
It turns out (surprise) we do not know how to drill safely in deep water. It also turns out we are completely dependent upon the oil companies for whatever technology there is to stop these deep underwater leaks as no one else has such technology, including the U.S. government. So the leak continues pouring thousands upon thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf on a daily basis, and if next Wednesday’s attempt to stop it fails it will probably continue at least until August (by which time so much damage will have been done to the environment and those who depend upon the Gulf resources the damage will be impossible to repair). Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu has said that if anyone has lost their income because of the spill, say $50,000, BP will write them a check for that amount. Similarly, if a business has lost a million dollars they will do likewise. Landrieu has been a recipient of lots of oil money and has defended offshore drilling for a long time. If she believes BP is going to pay everyone dollar for dollar for their losses she is dumber than a post. This is a claim on the same level of credibility that the CEO of BP made today that BP will clean up every drop of oil. Apparently some people are unaware that you can go to hell for lying the same as stealing, they have done plenty of both and no doubt there will be much more to come. This is going to become the worst ecological disaster in history and there is little to be done about it now. It should never have been either attempted or allowed. There is only one way to stop “accidents” like this from happening. Stop offshore drilling now and forever!!! No ifs, ands, or buts.
Sometimes, indeed, lots of times, I cannot believe what I hear. For example, tonight it was announced on the Rachel Maddow show that some deal had been reached whereby Congress would repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell almost immediately, but it would not go into effect until after the Pentagon finished reviewing the situation in the Fall. Does this make any sense? So, like, ah…what happens if the Pentagon reviews it and doesn’t like it? Will it be repealed? I don’t know what this is all about but it certainly seems stupid and pointless.
Dick the Slimy seems to be refreshingly quiet these days. I like it. But I wonder what it has to do with his possibly involvement in the disaster in the Gulf. It has been said that he may have been responsible for BP’s failure to have the proper emergency shut off equipment because “it was too expensive.” I don’t know if this is true but I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if it is. You don’t hear much out of Rumsfeld or Rice these days either, or any number of the others who were responsible for the illegal “war” in Iraq, the torture, and the mess we are currently trying to clean up (if, indeed, we are really trying). Personally, I find it wonderful that I no longer have to listen to their incessant lying, but I still insist they should be held accountable for their monumental crimes. The Bush/Cheney administration was nothing but a gigantic criminal enterprise from the very beginning and some are still repeating rewards from it, not the least of whom are the war profiteers and the industries that provide all the equipment and ammunition that is wasted as quickly as possible so they can make more.
There were no oil spills during biblical times. That is why there are only Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: pestilence (white horse), war (red), famine (black), and death (pale-green). I confess to never having seen a pale-green horse (or a purple cow). All of these are symbolic of evil destructive forces. What could possibly be more evil and destructive than the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Certainly it should deserve a Fifth horse. I suggest brindle as the most appropriate color (brindle is rarely applied to horses but it can be, it certainly beats pale-green).
The Benjamin of Benjamin Netanyahu is complaining that the Palestinians are not fighting fair with their boycott of Israeli products. I must say I find this hysterically funny. Those nasty Palestinians cornered there in their prison-like Gaza strip won’t buy products manufactured by their jailers and the jailers are weeping about it. This is apparently part of the Palestinians new campaign to employ non-violent techniques to acquire a Palestinian state (it may well work). Netanyahu has the chutzpa to accuse them of not fighting fair? He has also once again reiterated his ridiculous claim that Iran is a threat to the entire world. He must have studied Goebbels as he repeats this outrageous lie over and over again.
LKBIQ:
I was not lying. I said things that later on seemed to be untrue.
Richard Nixon,
TILT:
Teflon is the only known surface to which a gecko cannot stick.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Profit is Our Most Important Product
Argument about oil spill
leads man to threaten girlfriend
with meat cleaver.
Perhaps you remember the years Ronald Reagan spent shilling for General Electric, with the famous slogan “Progress is Our Most Important Product,” the years before he was fired for criticizing TVA, perhaps his first public attack on “Government,” that was to later make him famous in the eyes of the simple-minded, but notorious in the minds of more thoughtful people. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, there may have been a grain of truth in their boast of progress, they did sometimes improve refrigerators, stoves, and such, if that truly can be regarded as progress. It is doubtful they had any but purely pecuniary motives even during those relatively halcyon days, but “progress” was universally regarded as “good,” and thus their appearance was so framed.
It has become increasingly obvious their motto should have more fundamentally, realistically, and honestly been, “Profit is our one and only motive.” This is not, of course, unique to General Electric, but is the basic mantra of all U.S. businesses and corporations, the very foundation of unregulated capitalism. You might well say contemporaneously, “Profit is Our Most Important Product.” As Margaret Halsey warned us years ago, the United States has become a single-institution society, and that institution is business. It is true, I believe, that over the years business has insidiously insinuated itself into all corners of our life: our schools, medicine, military, entertainment, news, agriculture, science, and even religion… everywhere. We have allowed the profit motive to take over our culture to the point where concepts like the “public good,” or “public welfare” have virtually disappeared, along with ideas of “community,” “fraternity,” and “equality.” If a culture is to survive over time the citizens have to come to want to do what they have to do (that is, to live in harmony, provide themselves with shelter and sustenance, law and morality, prescriptions for ethical behavior, a common ethos, and even a sense of esprit de corps). Government plays a crucial role in allowing this to happen. It is, in one form or another, no matter how simple or complex, an absolute necessity for human life to continue over time. Long ago, and still in some places even now, this is accomplished through ties of kinship, friendship, seniority, community, tradition, a common history, face to face contacts and social solidarity. But for those of us living in more presumably “advanced” cultures these ties have largely been replaced with legal contracts, casual contacts, temporary arrangements, multiculturalism, diversity, and the more traditional ties have either disappeared entirely or importantly weakened. This can nowhere be more true than in a culture that has profit as its primary motive. If what people want to do is merely make a profit there is no foundation for successful human society. Profit is made only by exploiting others (labor) or the environment. Thus it is inherently anti-social, yet imposed upon a species that must be social to exist. It may well be the case that capitalism helps promote innovation and entrepreunership as is commonly argued, and perhaps a tad of profit may help toward that end, but unregulated profit-making over time encourages the rape and pillage of the population and environment, eventually puts all the wealth in the hands of a very few, and is inevitably destructive of the social fabric. If it is possible to have institutions “too big to fail,” it is also possible to have cultures “too big (and too greedy) to succeed.” I strongly suspect we may have reached that point. Neither socialism nor communism has demonstrated any success in managing the affairs of human beings. Unregulated capitalism has been a dismal failure as we are now experiencing. So far the most successful systems seem to be the social democracies that exist in Scandinavia and Europe, where the ravages of unregulated capitalism are carefully controlled by the state. This can never happen in the U.S. as long as citizens, a la Reagan, believe that government is “evil,” an idea so far-fetched, so absolutely contrary to social life, and so bankrupt and even evil in its own right, as to make one wonder how it could have been accepted in the first place. Sadly, I think Ronald Reagan was simple-minded enough to actually believe in such nonsense.
LKBIQ:
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Bible
TILT: The long-beaked echidna is the largest egg-laying mammal in the world.
leads man to threaten girlfriend
with meat cleaver.
Perhaps you remember the years Ronald Reagan spent shilling for General Electric, with the famous slogan “Progress is Our Most Important Product,” the years before he was fired for criticizing TVA, perhaps his first public attack on “Government,” that was to later make him famous in the eyes of the simple-minded, but notorious in the minds of more thoughtful people. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, there may have been a grain of truth in their boast of progress, they did sometimes improve refrigerators, stoves, and such, if that truly can be regarded as progress. It is doubtful they had any but purely pecuniary motives even during those relatively halcyon days, but “progress” was universally regarded as “good,” and thus their appearance was so framed.
It has become increasingly obvious their motto should have more fundamentally, realistically, and honestly been, “Profit is our one and only motive.” This is not, of course, unique to General Electric, but is the basic mantra of all U.S. businesses and corporations, the very foundation of unregulated capitalism. You might well say contemporaneously, “Profit is Our Most Important Product.” As Margaret Halsey warned us years ago, the United States has become a single-institution society, and that institution is business. It is true, I believe, that over the years business has insidiously insinuated itself into all corners of our life: our schools, medicine, military, entertainment, news, agriculture, science, and even religion… everywhere. We have allowed the profit motive to take over our culture to the point where concepts like the “public good,” or “public welfare” have virtually disappeared, along with ideas of “community,” “fraternity,” and “equality.” If a culture is to survive over time the citizens have to come to want to do what they have to do (that is, to live in harmony, provide themselves with shelter and sustenance, law and morality, prescriptions for ethical behavior, a common ethos, and even a sense of esprit de corps). Government plays a crucial role in allowing this to happen. It is, in one form or another, no matter how simple or complex, an absolute necessity for human life to continue over time. Long ago, and still in some places even now, this is accomplished through ties of kinship, friendship, seniority, community, tradition, a common history, face to face contacts and social solidarity. But for those of us living in more presumably “advanced” cultures these ties have largely been replaced with legal contracts, casual contacts, temporary arrangements, multiculturalism, diversity, and the more traditional ties have either disappeared entirely or importantly weakened. This can nowhere be more true than in a culture that has profit as its primary motive. If what people want to do is merely make a profit there is no foundation for successful human society. Profit is made only by exploiting others (labor) or the environment. Thus it is inherently anti-social, yet imposed upon a species that must be social to exist. It may well be the case that capitalism helps promote innovation and entrepreunership as is commonly argued, and perhaps a tad of profit may help toward that end, but unregulated profit-making over time encourages the rape and pillage of the population and environment, eventually puts all the wealth in the hands of a very few, and is inevitably destructive of the social fabric. If it is possible to have institutions “too big to fail,” it is also possible to have cultures “too big (and too greedy) to succeed.” I strongly suspect we may have reached that point. Neither socialism nor communism has demonstrated any success in managing the affairs of human beings. Unregulated capitalism has been a dismal failure as we are now experiencing. So far the most successful systems seem to be the social democracies that exist in Scandinavia and Europe, where the ravages of unregulated capitalism are carefully controlled by the state. This can never happen in the U.S. as long as citizens, a la Reagan, believe that government is “evil,” an idea so far-fetched, so absolutely contrary to social life, and so bankrupt and even evil in its own right, as to make one wonder how it could have been accepted in the first place. Sadly, I think Ronald Reagan was simple-minded enough to actually believe in such nonsense.
LKBIQ:
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Bible
TILT: The long-beaked echidna is the largest egg-laying mammal in the world.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Culture of the Absurd
Sentenced to nine years,
he says he looks forward
to a period of self-reflection.
I think there is no longer any doubt about it. The United States has become a culture of the absurd. It is absurd that an oil company was allowed to drill in the Gulf a mile below the surface with no real idea of what they were doing or how to correct it if something went wrong. It was absurd they did it and equally absurd they were allowed to do it. It will be even more absurd when they will probably manage to escape accountability and, most likely, even the full cost of cleaning it up (if it even can be cleaned up in the marshes in the area). I read today about a hedge fund manager who made 780 million dollars last year. I don’t care who he is or what he’s done or how successful he was or even if he found a way to turn dirt into gold, it is absolutely absurd that any one individual should be allowed to make 780 million dollars for sitting on his ass in some office. What is even more absurd is that he believes he deserved it.
Even more absurd than that is the fact that Bush/Cheney, admitted war criminals, are allowed not only to go unpunished but also to make money and garner publicity by criticizing the present administration. It is also absurd that Rumsfeld and Rove have not been held accountable for their scurrilous deeds. The fact that we now have some 40 million people on food stamps is absurd. We spend billions on dog and cat food while children go hungry. That is absurd. In supposedly the richest country on earth we have thousands upon thousands of homeless people, many of them veterans…absurd. Our defense budget is absurd. The price of our drugs is absurd. That a woman so ignorant she thought Africa was a country is commanding six figure fees for speaking about things she knows little about is absurd. The fact that her daughter who has accomplished nothing except getting pregnant out of wedlock is going to get $30,000 for speeches is quite obviously even more absurd.
There are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of Americans who do not believe in evolution in the 21st century. That is absurd. There are many who believe dinosaurs and people were contemporaneous, even more absurd. Michelle Backmann is absurd, as are Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Hannity, and others who purvey hate and propaganda for the Republican Party on a daily basis and claim it is “fair and balanced.” That so many species are going extinct is absurd. Corporate farming is absurd. Banks too-large-to-fail are absurd. Our lack of decent public transportation is absurd. Our treatment of Cuba is utterly absurd, as is our treatment of Iran. Our slavish commitment to Israel, no matter how outrageous their crimes, is absurd, indeed, our Foreign Policy itself is absurd, as is our “empire.”
Our economy, predicated on waste and obsolescence, is absurd, as is the fact that hundreds of new storage units are springing up everywhere to store all our “stuff” we apparently don’t have room for and don’t even need. “Shop ‘til you drop,” is absurd, as is “he who has the most toys wins.” All you can eat restaurants are absurd. Our obsession with erections and sex is absurd, as is our epidemic of obesity and constant dieting. Our educational system, from kindergarten through University is little more than a parody of what education should be about, and our shameful anti-intellectualism and neglect of education is absurdly suicidal. Our rivers and lakes are everywhere polluted with mercury and other poisonous substances, the air we breathe is often foul, and the food we eat is often unhealthy, just one absurdity after another.
I could easily go on. Some of you may think I am just a cranky old man dreaming of the “good ol’ days.” Perhaps I am, but I don’t think so. The whole purpose of government, even culture itself, is supposed to exist to serve the needs of the citizens that comprise and live it. If it does not do this it is unfortunately dysfunctional and will ultimately fail. Does anyone truly believe that in this huge and complex corporate-dominated culture we currently live in the needs of ordinary citizens come first, or have any particular salience at all? The only “persons” that count are “corporate persons,” because they have all the money and all the power. Ordinary persons are expendable, merely living on the scraps we are thrown from time to time and pretending we have something to say about government and politics. The idea that “government (read culture) is the enemy,” however much it might have temporarily served Reagan and the Republicans, is an idea absolutely contrary to the basic nature of culture and human existence. Without rules and customs and laws (government/culture) human life would be intolerable and even impossible. Privatization and unregulated capitalism have, I believe, made our lives more intolerable, leading us to where we are, living in a culture of the absurd that no longer has much connection to human needs and requirements, and everything to do with “profit.” Marx said, “The last capitalist we hang will be the one who sold us the rope.” Will it have to come to that?
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
From Thomas Gray, Elegy in a Country Church-yard.
he says he looks forward
to a period of self-reflection.
I think there is no longer any doubt about it. The United States has become a culture of the absurd. It is absurd that an oil company was allowed to drill in the Gulf a mile below the surface with no real idea of what they were doing or how to correct it if something went wrong. It was absurd they did it and equally absurd they were allowed to do it. It will be even more absurd when they will probably manage to escape accountability and, most likely, even the full cost of cleaning it up (if it even can be cleaned up in the marshes in the area). I read today about a hedge fund manager who made 780 million dollars last year. I don’t care who he is or what he’s done or how successful he was or even if he found a way to turn dirt into gold, it is absolutely absurd that any one individual should be allowed to make 780 million dollars for sitting on his ass in some office. What is even more absurd is that he believes he deserved it.
Even more absurd than that is the fact that Bush/Cheney, admitted war criminals, are allowed not only to go unpunished but also to make money and garner publicity by criticizing the present administration. It is also absurd that Rumsfeld and Rove have not been held accountable for their scurrilous deeds. The fact that we now have some 40 million people on food stamps is absurd. We spend billions on dog and cat food while children go hungry. That is absurd. In supposedly the richest country on earth we have thousands upon thousands of homeless people, many of them veterans…absurd. Our defense budget is absurd. The price of our drugs is absurd. That a woman so ignorant she thought Africa was a country is commanding six figure fees for speaking about things she knows little about is absurd. The fact that her daughter who has accomplished nothing except getting pregnant out of wedlock is going to get $30,000 for speeches is quite obviously even more absurd.
There are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of Americans who do not believe in evolution in the 21st century. That is absurd. There are many who believe dinosaurs and people were contemporaneous, even more absurd. Michelle Backmann is absurd, as are Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Hannity, and others who purvey hate and propaganda for the Republican Party on a daily basis and claim it is “fair and balanced.” That so many species are going extinct is absurd. Corporate farming is absurd. Banks too-large-to-fail are absurd. Our lack of decent public transportation is absurd. Our treatment of Cuba is utterly absurd, as is our treatment of Iran. Our slavish commitment to Israel, no matter how outrageous their crimes, is absurd, indeed, our Foreign Policy itself is absurd, as is our “empire.”
Our economy, predicated on waste and obsolescence, is absurd, as is the fact that hundreds of new storage units are springing up everywhere to store all our “stuff” we apparently don’t have room for and don’t even need. “Shop ‘til you drop,” is absurd, as is “he who has the most toys wins.” All you can eat restaurants are absurd. Our obsession with erections and sex is absurd, as is our epidemic of obesity and constant dieting. Our educational system, from kindergarten through University is little more than a parody of what education should be about, and our shameful anti-intellectualism and neglect of education is absurdly suicidal. Our rivers and lakes are everywhere polluted with mercury and other poisonous substances, the air we breathe is often foul, and the food we eat is often unhealthy, just one absurdity after another.
I could easily go on. Some of you may think I am just a cranky old man dreaming of the “good ol’ days.” Perhaps I am, but I don’t think so. The whole purpose of government, even culture itself, is supposed to exist to serve the needs of the citizens that comprise and live it. If it does not do this it is unfortunately dysfunctional and will ultimately fail. Does anyone truly believe that in this huge and complex corporate-dominated culture we currently live in the needs of ordinary citizens come first, or have any particular salience at all? The only “persons” that count are “corporate persons,” because they have all the money and all the power. Ordinary persons are expendable, merely living on the scraps we are thrown from time to time and pretending we have something to say about government and politics. The idea that “government (read culture) is the enemy,” however much it might have temporarily served Reagan and the Republicans, is an idea absolutely contrary to the basic nature of culture and human existence. Without rules and customs and laws (government/culture) human life would be intolerable and even impossible. Privatization and unregulated capitalism have, I believe, made our lives more intolerable, leading us to where we are, living in a culture of the absurd that no longer has much connection to human needs and requirements, and everything to do with “profit.” Marx said, “The last capitalist we hang will be the one who sold us the rope.” Will it have to come to that?
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
From Thomas Gray, Elegy in a Country Church-yard.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Baying at the Moon?
Alabama Evangelist gets life
plus 51 years for killing his wife,
storing her body in freezer.
Is Representative Alan Grayson of Florida (bless him) simply baying at the moon, or might he actually get some attention for doing the right thing? He is sponsoring a bill, HR 5353, called appropriately enough, The War is Making Your Poor, that would deny the 159 billion dollars Obama is asking for over and above the Defense Budget of 549 billion. He points out that as our Defense Budget is larger than all the rest of the world combined it ought to be enough to fund the ongoing “wars” without additional funding. What a novel idea. I wonder why no one ever thought of it before. Of course it won’t have even a remote chance of passing, it’s far too sensible and realistic for our present Congress of Dunces. Grayson is smart. I’m sure he knows that the 549 billion for defense has little to do with defense and much to do with maintaining the military/industrial/political complex that has us firmly in its grasp and is not likely to let go. But it’s a great attempt nonetheless to maybe restore some sanity to our increasingly militaristic culture. Grayson claims this bill would make it possible for every American to receive a tax break for the first $35,000 of income, and would also reduce the debt by 16 billion. I’m not necessarily keen on the tax break idea as I think if Americans are not willing to take to the streets, telephones, televisions, internet, and etc. to protest these two ridiculous “wars” they probably ought to suffer. But I have to admit it makes a compelling selling point. I love this guy, I wish we had a few hundred more just like him. I hope he will not become another Dennis Kucinich, a rare sane and intelligent voice crying out in the midst of a cacophony of insanity and stupidity.
And speaking of insanity and stupidity, I sincerely hope that anyone who will now say “drill, baby, drill” will be immediately led off to the nearest insane asylum. It is not comforting to know that BP has been lying to us from the very beginning and the oil spill is immeasurably larger than we were led to believe. The oil has now reached the marshes of Louisiana and the currents that could take it all the way up the Atlantic coast. Maybe the tax break Grayson is promoting will help us pay for the damage, you can be pretty sure that BP will not pay for it all in spite of their claims to the contrary. As there is no longer accountability in the U.S. there is no responsibility either. BP seems to be well aware of this as they deny responsibility for their absolutely criminal behavior.
I am already sick about hearing anything more about Rand Paul. He can be partly excused, I think, because he is a medical doctor. Medical doctors are among the most poorly educated among us and aside from their medical specialty rarely know much about anything else. This is built into medical curriculum that, from the very beginning, demands such a rigorous agenda of certain scientific courses to qualify one for medical school there is virtually no time for learning anything in general. As an anthropologist who worked for many years in medical schools and with medical doctors I must say I was often dumbfounded, even appalled by some of the questions they asked me. Howard Dean seems to be a bit of an exception.
LKBIQ:
Doctors don't know everything really. They understand matter, not spirit. And you and I live in spirit.
William Saroyan
TILT:
Koalas are not bears, but marsupials.
plus 51 years for killing his wife,
storing her body in freezer.
Is Representative Alan Grayson of Florida (bless him) simply baying at the moon, or might he actually get some attention for doing the right thing? He is sponsoring a bill, HR 5353, called appropriately enough, The War is Making Your Poor, that would deny the 159 billion dollars Obama is asking for over and above the Defense Budget of 549 billion. He points out that as our Defense Budget is larger than all the rest of the world combined it ought to be enough to fund the ongoing “wars” without additional funding. What a novel idea. I wonder why no one ever thought of it before. Of course it won’t have even a remote chance of passing, it’s far too sensible and realistic for our present Congress of Dunces. Grayson is smart. I’m sure he knows that the 549 billion for defense has little to do with defense and much to do with maintaining the military/industrial/political complex that has us firmly in its grasp and is not likely to let go. But it’s a great attempt nonetheless to maybe restore some sanity to our increasingly militaristic culture. Grayson claims this bill would make it possible for every American to receive a tax break for the first $35,000 of income, and would also reduce the debt by 16 billion. I’m not necessarily keen on the tax break idea as I think if Americans are not willing to take to the streets, telephones, televisions, internet, and etc. to protest these two ridiculous “wars” they probably ought to suffer. But I have to admit it makes a compelling selling point. I love this guy, I wish we had a few hundred more just like him. I hope he will not become another Dennis Kucinich, a rare sane and intelligent voice crying out in the midst of a cacophony of insanity and stupidity.
And speaking of insanity and stupidity, I sincerely hope that anyone who will now say “drill, baby, drill” will be immediately led off to the nearest insane asylum. It is not comforting to know that BP has been lying to us from the very beginning and the oil spill is immeasurably larger than we were led to believe. The oil has now reached the marshes of Louisiana and the currents that could take it all the way up the Atlantic coast. Maybe the tax break Grayson is promoting will help us pay for the damage, you can be pretty sure that BP will not pay for it all in spite of their claims to the contrary. As there is no longer accountability in the U.S. there is no responsibility either. BP seems to be well aware of this as they deny responsibility for their absolutely criminal behavior.
I am already sick about hearing anything more about Rand Paul. He can be partly excused, I think, because he is a medical doctor. Medical doctors are among the most poorly educated among us and aside from their medical specialty rarely know much about anything else. This is built into medical curriculum that, from the very beginning, demands such a rigorous agenda of certain scientific courses to qualify one for medical school there is virtually no time for learning anything in general. As an anthropologist who worked for many years in medical schools and with medical doctors I must say I was often dumbfounded, even appalled by some of the questions they asked me. Howard Dean seems to be a bit of an exception.
LKBIQ:
Doctors don't know everything really. They understand matter, not spirit. And you and I live in spirit.
William Saroyan
TILT:
Koalas are not bears, but marsupials.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Eureka Moment
She doesn’t get enough mayonnaise
and mustard packets, attacks
Wendy’s employee with taser.
You might think the U.S. and other countries involved in the “Iran controversy” would be happy to learn that Brazil and Turkey have worked out an agreement with Iran to take much of their uranium and make sure it will be used for peaceful purposes, but apparently not. The U.S. and others are still apparently determined to impose severe sanctions on Iran if they do not stop processing uranium. I may be terribly uninformed but it is my understanding that Iran has every right to process uranium as long as it is not for nuclear weapons. Iran has said repeatedly its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes and they do not even want a nuclear bomb. There is no evidence Iran is producing a nuclear weapon, and whatever evidence there is seems to indicate they are telling the truth. So here we are, insisting they stop doing something they have a legal right to do, and insisting they are doing something there is no evidence for, and pressuring other countries to go along with sanctions to prevent them from doing what they either are not doing or have a legal right to do. As this makes no sense at all, there must be more to it than meets the eye. Somewhere I read recently that Israel and the U.S. are not really concerned with Iran’s nuclear program but, rather, with regime change. I guess they want regime change because the current Iranian regime is not favorably disposed towards Israel and they dream of overthrowing them as they previously did when we imposed the Shah on them. Regime change, however possible, makes more sense than their pitiful nuclear program that will never, never, ever, be enough to challenge the Israeli and U.S. nuclear programs, even if they were eventually to produce a bomb. Ultimately, I have no doubt this is fundamentally all about the U.S. determination to control the Middle East and the oil supply, and also keep the price of oil in dollars rather than euros (this would seem not to be much of a problem at the moment given the condition of the euro).
There seems to be some talk these days of actually reducing the “defense” budget. I put that in quotation marks because I don’t believe it is truly primarily for defense. Somewhere I saw a list of things like how many battleships, submarines, nuclear weapons, and so on we possess. I can’t remember precisely the numbers but in every case it is not that we have more of these things than anyone else, it’s that we have in every category far, far, far more. Indeed, we have so many more it is utterly ridiculous, even far-fetched, I should even say perhaps unbelievable. If we were to cut the numbers in half we would still possess far, far more. This means all this hardware cannot be merely for defense, it has to be related to the military/industrial/political complex that now seems to be so untouchable I doubt it will be possible to rein it in significantly. The presence of this military budget also, I believe, explains why we will not cease threatening Iran or be exiting Afghanistan (and probably Iraq) any time soon (until we can perhaps find some new imaginary enemies like, perhaps, visitors from outer space). As long as we continue to pour obscene amounts of money into “defense” we will inevitably spend ourselves into oblivion. But I guess a few will have a few more years of fantastically luxurious lives while the lives of the masses continue to decline from unemployment, poverty, and hopelessness.
Wait, I just had a genuine “Eureka moment!” We can solve the unemployment problem easily by putting everyone to work building pyramids, castles, massive tombs and monuments honoring all our successful entrepreneurs, billionaires and multi-millionaires, CEO’s, and others in the mold of Trump, Buffet, Turner, and maybe even the highly successful radio and television stars like Limbaugh and Beck. And don’t forget the outstanding athletes who have attained multi-millionaire, even billionaire status like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. What an idea! I’m sure they would be pleased to have grand monuments built for them (they could be even subsidized by the government to spare them from having to pay it all themselves). They could vie for the most spectacular and expensive tombs and monuments and compete for the rarest and most expensive materials and objects of art. Obviously the more money they have the more elaborate their monuments would be. They could make the Pyramids, Versailles, the Taj Mahal, Parthenon, Eiffel Tower, Cristo-Rei, and even the Great Wall of China look tawdry. With modern technology and know-how, monuments for wealthy capitalists could be immeasurably greater, more spectacular, and more durable than anything previously seen on earth (including Dubai). Granted these massive monuments to the Great Capitalists wouldn’t do much for individual citizens, for health care, education, global warming and such, wouldn’t do much for society in general, and the jobs probably wouldn’t pay much, but hey, it would provide a lot of jobs, and all the workers would have to be fed and housed (at least minimally). Maybe after they finished the job they, too, could be honored by being interred with the honoree who, no doubt, would feel it was money well spent (any other use of it would clearly be considered overly socialistic). I better work on this, it sounds too good to be true.
LKBIQ:
People are the common denominator of progress. So... no improvement is possible with unimproved people, and advance is certain when people are liberated and educated. It would be wrong to dismiss the importance of roads, railroads, power plants, mills, and the other familiar furniture of economic development.... But we are coming to realize... that there is a certain sterility in economic monuments that stand alone in a sea of illiteracy. Conquest of illiteracy comes first.
John Kenneth Galbraith
TILT:
The Pig-footed Bandicoot is extinct.
and mustard packets, attacks
Wendy’s employee with taser.
You might think the U.S. and other countries involved in the “Iran controversy” would be happy to learn that Brazil and Turkey have worked out an agreement with Iran to take much of their uranium and make sure it will be used for peaceful purposes, but apparently not. The U.S. and others are still apparently determined to impose severe sanctions on Iran if they do not stop processing uranium. I may be terribly uninformed but it is my understanding that Iran has every right to process uranium as long as it is not for nuclear weapons. Iran has said repeatedly its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes and they do not even want a nuclear bomb. There is no evidence Iran is producing a nuclear weapon, and whatever evidence there is seems to indicate they are telling the truth. So here we are, insisting they stop doing something they have a legal right to do, and insisting they are doing something there is no evidence for, and pressuring other countries to go along with sanctions to prevent them from doing what they either are not doing or have a legal right to do. As this makes no sense at all, there must be more to it than meets the eye. Somewhere I read recently that Israel and the U.S. are not really concerned with Iran’s nuclear program but, rather, with regime change. I guess they want regime change because the current Iranian regime is not favorably disposed towards Israel and they dream of overthrowing them as they previously did when we imposed the Shah on them. Regime change, however possible, makes more sense than their pitiful nuclear program that will never, never, ever, be enough to challenge the Israeli and U.S. nuclear programs, even if they were eventually to produce a bomb. Ultimately, I have no doubt this is fundamentally all about the U.S. determination to control the Middle East and the oil supply, and also keep the price of oil in dollars rather than euros (this would seem not to be much of a problem at the moment given the condition of the euro).
There seems to be some talk these days of actually reducing the “defense” budget. I put that in quotation marks because I don’t believe it is truly primarily for defense. Somewhere I saw a list of things like how many battleships, submarines, nuclear weapons, and so on we possess. I can’t remember precisely the numbers but in every case it is not that we have more of these things than anyone else, it’s that we have in every category far, far, far more. Indeed, we have so many more it is utterly ridiculous, even far-fetched, I should even say perhaps unbelievable. If we were to cut the numbers in half we would still possess far, far more. This means all this hardware cannot be merely for defense, it has to be related to the military/industrial/political complex that now seems to be so untouchable I doubt it will be possible to rein it in significantly. The presence of this military budget also, I believe, explains why we will not cease threatening Iran or be exiting Afghanistan (and probably Iraq) any time soon (until we can perhaps find some new imaginary enemies like, perhaps, visitors from outer space). As long as we continue to pour obscene amounts of money into “defense” we will inevitably spend ourselves into oblivion. But I guess a few will have a few more years of fantastically luxurious lives while the lives of the masses continue to decline from unemployment, poverty, and hopelessness.
Wait, I just had a genuine “Eureka moment!” We can solve the unemployment problem easily by putting everyone to work building pyramids, castles, massive tombs and monuments honoring all our successful entrepreneurs, billionaires and multi-millionaires, CEO’s, and others in the mold of Trump, Buffet, Turner, and maybe even the highly successful radio and television stars like Limbaugh and Beck. And don’t forget the outstanding athletes who have attained multi-millionaire, even billionaire status like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. What an idea! I’m sure they would be pleased to have grand monuments built for them (they could be even subsidized by the government to spare them from having to pay it all themselves). They could vie for the most spectacular and expensive tombs and monuments and compete for the rarest and most expensive materials and objects of art. Obviously the more money they have the more elaborate their monuments would be. They could make the Pyramids, Versailles, the Taj Mahal, Parthenon, Eiffel Tower, Cristo-Rei, and even the Great Wall of China look tawdry. With modern technology and know-how, monuments for wealthy capitalists could be immeasurably greater, more spectacular, and more durable than anything previously seen on earth (including Dubai). Granted these massive monuments to the Great Capitalists wouldn’t do much for individual citizens, for health care, education, global warming and such, wouldn’t do much for society in general, and the jobs probably wouldn’t pay much, but hey, it would provide a lot of jobs, and all the workers would have to be fed and housed (at least minimally). Maybe after they finished the job they, too, could be honored by being interred with the honoree who, no doubt, would feel it was money well spent (any other use of it would clearly be considered overly socialistic). I better work on this, it sounds too good to be true.
LKBIQ:
People are the common denominator of progress. So... no improvement is possible with unimproved people, and advance is certain when people are liberated and educated. It would be wrong to dismiss the importance of roads, railroads, power plants, mills, and the other familiar furniture of economic development.... But we are coming to realize... that there is a certain sterility in economic monuments that stand alone in a sea of illiteracy. Conquest of illiteracy comes first.
John Kenneth Galbraith
TILT:
The Pig-footed Bandicoot is extinct.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Obama's Folly
Colorado psychic nets $290,000
telling clients their cash is evil,
they should give it to her.
Well, mother-in-law, brother-in-law gone. Normal life resumes.
I just read today somewhere on the web that at some point in June the Afghan “war” will have reached the trillion dollar mark. Think of that, eight years of “war,” a trillion dollars spent, and what do we have? If your answer is nothing you get a gold star. I think it is entirely fair that from now on we refer to this “war” as Obama’s Folly. It is true that Obama did not start this mess, but he could have brought it to an early end. He did the opposite, he accelerated it, added more troops, killed more innocents, and has apparently no intention of ever truly ending it. By now virtually all sentient beings know that there is nothing to be accomplished in Afghanistan militarily, nothing is going to be “won,” nothing to be gained, no legitimate reason to continue pouring more and more resources down into a bottomless pit. Unless…unless…unless this nasty business is continuing because the military/industrial/political complex demands it. It is for them, after all, a true “cash cow.” I like to think that it was true that Obama did not have enough Foreign Policy experience and that he was naively taken in by his Generals who gave him bad advice (Generals always seem to want to fight “wars,” for how else do they advance in grade, fame, and such). But whatever else I might think about Obama, I don’t think he was stupid, so perhaps he was not taken in and actually believed in expanding this totally ridiculous “war.”
I saw Rand Paul interviewed by Rachel Maddow tonight. I must say I was not at all impressed. If he’s the best the Tea Party can do I don’t think there is much to worry about from them. He was evasive, not answering direct questions, and seemed to me to hold entirely contradictory views. For example, he claims he is absolutely opposed to discrimination in any form, but at the same time he believes that private businesses should not be controlled by government in any way. Thus if a private business wants to discriminate presumably that is okay. Although I agree with the Pauls on some things, like ending the “wars,” legalizing pot, and so on, they appear to me to be the worst kind of Ayn Rand 18th century capitalists. I think the only good thing that could come of Rand Paul being in Congress is that his views are so extreme he will be basically just the voice of a relatively unimportant and useless participant.
Heavy oil has now reached the Louisiana shoreline, and oil has also now reached the Loop Current that will take up to the Florida coast and northward to how far no one knows. It is disaster beyond belief. In spite of this calamity there are still some total Airheads like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, and apparently even Barack Obama, that think we should just go on drilling offshore. They are apparently willing to believe the utter nonsense the Oil Giants tell them about how safe it is, how they know what they are doing, how they have highly developed technology, and blah, blah, blah. And people believe this garbage. It is a marvelous situation, BP blames Transocean Drilling, they, in turn blame Halliburton, who throws the blame back on BP, and now, of course, the Governmental agencies responsible for oversight are being blamed. As far as I’m concerned they’re all to blame, the executives of the various companies should be arrested and jailed, the agencies that failed to oversee what they were supposed to oversee should be fired, if not jailed, and offshore drilling should be banned forever while we develop new sources of energy. I doubt anyone of them will be held accountable for anything, the taxpayers will pay, and our corporate “persons” will laugh all the way to the bank (probably in Switzeland, Luxembourg, or wherever). Hey, it’s the American way. Just remember, if you’re going to drill for oil you’re going to have a little spill once in a while, no big deal. Tell that to the Shrimpers and Fisherman and all the others whose lives will be destroyed. Of course they can always sue, while in no time at all they will be handsomely rewarded for their losses (if, that is, they can wait for twenty or thirty years and stay alive long enough). If we continue to drill after this it will be the final proof that human beings are too short-sighted and stupid to manage their lives and the lives of other creatures on earth. If we continue to build nuclear plants our stupidity, nay, our complete idiocy, will be reinforced, as we say, in spades.
LKBIQ:
The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.
Karl Marx
TILT: Fennel is a plant disliked by fleas and can be used to keep them away.
telling clients their cash is evil,
they should give it to her.
Well, mother-in-law, brother-in-law gone. Normal life resumes.
I just read today somewhere on the web that at some point in June the Afghan “war” will have reached the trillion dollar mark. Think of that, eight years of “war,” a trillion dollars spent, and what do we have? If your answer is nothing you get a gold star. I think it is entirely fair that from now on we refer to this “war” as Obama’s Folly. It is true that Obama did not start this mess, but he could have brought it to an early end. He did the opposite, he accelerated it, added more troops, killed more innocents, and has apparently no intention of ever truly ending it. By now virtually all sentient beings know that there is nothing to be accomplished in Afghanistan militarily, nothing is going to be “won,” nothing to be gained, no legitimate reason to continue pouring more and more resources down into a bottomless pit. Unless…unless…unless this nasty business is continuing because the military/industrial/political complex demands it. It is for them, after all, a true “cash cow.” I like to think that it was true that Obama did not have enough Foreign Policy experience and that he was naively taken in by his Generals who gave him bad advice (Generals always seem to want to fight “wars,” for how else do they advance in grade, fame, and such). But whatever else I might think about Obama, I don’t think he was stupid, so perhaps he was not taken in and actually believed in expanding this totally ridiculous “war.”
I saw Rand Paul interviewed by Rachel Maddow tonight. I must say I was not at all impressed. If he’s the best the Tea Party can do I don’t think there is much to worry about from them. He was evasive, not answering direct questions, and seemed to me to hold entirely contradictory views. For example, he claims he is absolutely opposed to discrimination in any form, but at the same time he believes that private businesses should not be controlled by government in any way. Thus if a private business wants to discriminate presumably that is okay. Although I agree with the Pauls on some things, like ending the “wars,” legalizing pot, and so on, they appear to me to be the worst kind of Ayn Rand 18th century capitalists. I think the only good thing that could come of Rand Paul being in Congress is that his views are so extreme he will be basically just the voice of a relatively unimportant and useless participant.
Heavy oil has now reached the Louisiana shoreline, and oil has also now reached the Loop Current that will take up to the Florida coast and northward to how far no one knows. It is disaster beyond belief. In spite of this calamity there are still some total Airheads like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, and apparently even Barack Obama, that think we should just go on drilling offshore. They are apparently willing to believe the utter nonsense the Oil Giants tell them about how safe it is, how they know what they are doing, how they have highly developed technology, and blah, blah, blah. And people believe this garbage. It is a marvelous situation, BP blames Transocean Drilling, they, in turn blame Halliburton, who throws the blame back on BP, and now, of course, the Governmental agencies responsible for oversight are being blamed. As far as I’m concerned they’re all to blame, the executives of the various companies should be arrested and jailed, the agencies that failed to oversee what they were supposed to oversee should be fired, if not jailed, and offshore drilling should be banned forever while we develop new sources of energy. I doubt anyone of them will be held accountable for anything, the taxpayers will pay, and our corporate “persons” will laugh all the way to the bank (probably in Switzeland, Luxembourg, or wherever). Hey, it’s the American way. Just remember, if you’re going to drill for oil you’re going to have a little spill once in a while, no big deal. Tell that to the Shrimpers and Fisherman and all the others whose lives will be destroyed. Of course they can always sue, while in no time at all they will be handsomely rewarded for their losses (if, that is, they can wait for twenty or thirty years and stay alive long enough). If we continue to drill after this it will be the final proof that human beings are too short-sighted and stupid to manage their lives and the lives of other creatures on earth. If we continue to build nuclear plants our stupidity, nay, our complete idiocy, will be reinforced, as we say, in spades.
LKBIQ:
The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.
Karl Marx
TILT: Fennel is a plant disliked by fleas and can be used to keep them away.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Sorry...
Swedish man guilty of harassing
neighbor by dumping sack
of killer slugs In her garden.
Sorry. I am being visited by mother-in –law and brother-in-law. Morialekafa will probably not appear until Tuesday evening (18th) at the earliest.
In the meanwhile enjoy the oil spill and reflect on how safe it is to drill on the ocean floor a mile below the surface, how honest and responsible the oil companies are, nuclear energy, and what for want of a better term, we might call the “ultimate real.”
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
John Donne
neighbor by dumping sack
of killer slugs In her garden.
Sorry. I am being visited by mother-in –law and brother-in-law. Morialekafa will probably not appear until Tuesday evening (18th) at the earliest.
In the meanwhile enjoy the oil spill and reflect on how safe it is to drill on the ocean floor a mile below the surface, how honest and responsible the oil companies are, nuclear energy, and what for want of a better term, we might call the “ultimate real.”
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
John Donne
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Too Many What?
Palestinian man murders
his wife when ultrasound
indicates she is carrying a girl.
So Pat Buchanan thinks if Kagan is confirmed there will be too many Jews on the Supreme Court (33% although Jews apparently make up only 2% of the population). Well, I think there are too many Catholics (5, I believe, and Catholics surely do not make up that percentage of the population). I also believe there are too many New Yorkers, too many Harvard people, too many elitists, too many judges, not enough Protestants, and not enough atheists. Not only that, I think there are also too many old White guys, and too many old people in general. There quite definitely should be a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court Justices (when the court began the average age of life was far shorter than it is now). I would even go further and suggest there may be too many right-wing loonies on the contemporary court. I suppose if anyone could prove that Kagan is a Lesbian, it could be argued there would be too many Lesbians on the court (unless Lesbians make up more than 10% of the population). It doesn’t matter if she is a Jew, nor does it matter if she’s a Lesbian, nor does it matter that she plays softball, smokes an occasional cigar, plays poker, sleeps late on Sunday morning, and doesn’t love Jesus. What matters is that she has the proper credentials (which she surely does) and that our President wants to appoint her. Furthermore, everyone knows she will be confirmed so why go on discussing it endlessly. Put her on the court and let her do her duty. Aren’t we buried under enough utter nonsense without going on for months about this?
I find it absolutely unbelievable that in light of the total disaster in the Gulf there are still those, like Sarah Palin and others who still insist we should go on drilling. But I find it equally unbelievable there are people like President Obama who seriously insist we should also promote nuclear energy. I wonder if they are just in the pockets of the energy industry (I don’t really wonder much about it), or if they are just plain stupid. I suspect it is both. How can you speak of weaning ourselves from oil at the same time insisting on more drilling? Of course nuclear energy is an even worse proposition. Nuclear energy is basically a position that assumes life on earth is not as important as a bit more energy, and more drilling is not really much different.
Is anyone surprised that we may not withdraw from Iraq as soon or as massively as predicted? Remember, our projected withdrawal always came with a disclaimer about “the situation on the ground.” This creates a marvelous excuse for never withdrawing, because the “situation on the ground,” as long as we continue to be there, will never be propitious. The same will be true for Afghanistan. Thus it is we can continue our never-ending “wars,” and our never-ending support for our military/industrial/political complex, and also help us to keep unemployment from getting worse, and potentially postpone what will probably have to be a full-blown revolution before any meaningful change can take place.
Somewhere the other day I saw the question posed, “Do you think we need a third party?” I don’t think so, what we need is a second party, as we no longer have a genuine two party system. There is no longer any significant difference between Democrats and Republicans, they’re all “on the take,” and the only real issue is how to split up the loot. The corporations have so much money and so much power they control both parties, allow us to pretend we have a choice, and happily go on raping and pillaging the world’s resources (including labor) at will. If they were to decide we should have Sarah Palin as President we no doubt would. If you believe our corporate masters care one iota about abortion, gay marriage, immigration, habeas corpus, Miranda rights, environmental, or human rights in general, think again. It is quite clear they think only of short-term profits, the “name of the game.” Until corporations are deprived of their status as “persons,” and until they can be brought under citizen control, you can forget any meaningful changes in the lives of ordinary people. Sad, but alas, true.
LKBIQ:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Charles Dickens
TILT:
College graduation ceremonies are boring almost beyond belief.
his wife when ultrasound
indicates she is carrying a girl.
So Pat Buchanan thinks if Kagan is confirmed there will be too many Jews on the Supreme Court (33% although Jews apparently make up only 2% of the population). Well, I think there are too many Catholics (5, I believe, and Catholics surely do not make up that percentage of the population). I also believe there are too many New Yorkers, too many Harvard people, too many elitists, too many judges, not enough Protestants, and not enough atheists. Not only that, I think there are also too many old White guys, and too many old people in general. There quite definitely should be a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court Justices (when the court began the average age of life was far shorter than it is now). I would even go further and suggest there may be too many right-wing loonies on the contemporary court. I suppose if anyone could prove that Kagan is a Lesbian, it could be argued there would be too many Lesbians on the court (unless Lesbians make up more than 10% of the population). It doesn’t matter if she is a Jew, nor does it matter if she’s a Lesbian, nor does it matter that she plays softball, smokes an occasional cigar, plays poker, sleeps late on Sunday morning, and doesn’t love Jesus. What matters is that she has the proper credentials (which she surely does) and that our President wants to appoint her. Furthermore, everyone knows she will be confirmed so why go on discussing it endlessly. Put her on the court and let her do her duty. Aren’t we buried under enough utter nonsense without going on for months about this?
I find it absolutely unbelievable that in light of the total disaster in the Gulf there are still those, like Sarah Palin and others who still insist we should go on drilling. But I find it equally unbelievable there are people like President Obama who seriously insist we should also promote nuclear energy. I wonder if they are just in the pockets of the energy industry (I don’t really wonder much about it), or if they are just plain stupid. I suspect it is both. How can you speak of weaning ourselves from oil at the same time insisting on more drilling? Of course nuclear energy is an even worse proposition. Nuclear energy is basically a position that assumes life on earth is not as important as a bit more energy, and more drilling is not really much different.
Is anyone surprised that we may not withdraw from Iraq as soon or as massively as predicted? Remember, our projected withdrawal always came with a disclaimer about “the situation on the ground.” This creates a marvelous excuse for never withdrawing, because the “situation on the ground,” as long as we continue to be there, will never be propitious. The same will be true for Afghanistan. Thus it is we can continue our never-ending “wars,” and our never-ending support for our military/industrial/political complex, and also help us to keep unemployment from getting worse, and potentially postpone what will probably have to be a full-blown revolution before any meaningful change can take place.
Somewhere the other day I saw the question posed, “Do you think we need a third party?” I don’t think so, what we need is a second party, as we no longer have a genuine two party system. There is no longer any significant difference between Democrats and Republicans, they’re all “on the take,” and the only real issue is how to split up the loot. The corporations have so much money and so much power they control both parties, allow us to pretend we have a choice, and happily go on raping and pillaging the world’s resources (including labor) at will. If they were to decide we should have Sarah Palin as President we no doubt would. If you believe our corporate masters care one iota about abortion, gay marriage, immigration, habeas corpus, Miranda rights, environmental, or human rights in general, think again. It is quite clear they think only of short-term profits, the “name of the game.” Until corporations are deprived of their status as “persons,” and until they can be brought under citizen control, you can forget any meaningful changes in the lives of ordinary people. Sad, but alas, true.
LKBIQ:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Charles Dickens
TILT:
College graduation ceremonies are boring almost beyond belief.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
As Usual...
Man arrested for possessing
pornographic picture of man
having intercourse with dead squid.
As usual…I don’t get it. There is all this talk about how the Democrats are liable to lose their majorities in the 2010 election year. Even more interesting is the claim that voters are going to turn to Republicans. That is what I truly don’t “get.” It is not hard to understand why Democrats are going to lose some seats, after all, the country is not in such great shape, what with unemployment, national debt, ongoing “wars,” oil spills, natural disasters, and on and on. But why, I ask, would that lead voters to turn to Republicans? Republicans under Bush/Cheney virtually destroyed our country during their eight nightmare years in office, lying to start an unnecessary, illegal, and immoral “war” with a country that was not a threat to us. They instituted torture, participated in massive war profiteering, ran up the national debt, and were, in short, disastrous as an administration.
What have Republicans done since the election of President Obama? On the positive side you have to admit they have done nothing, absolutely nothing. On the negative side they have boasted of being the party of “no,” and have succeeded overwhelmingly in being just that. They have been exposed repeatedly of the most blatant, even ridiculous hypocrisy. They have put forward no ideas whatsoever as to what they would do to bring our country back to anywhere approaching what we might think of as normal. They have simply proven themselves to be useless, lying hypocrites who should not even have been allowed to draw their salaries (why should they be paid to do nothing). And yet, they seem to believe they are going to make a dramatic comeback in 2010. And apparently others believe this as well. How this can possibly be is a complete mystery to me. I think, however, that after 80 years of being usually wrong about most everything political, I may have figured out why. I guess it’s because I have always assumed that American voters would act at least more or less rationally, and that has proven wrong time after time.
In the coming election I predict there will be a potential “blood bath” when it comes to incumbents. And this, I think, is as it should be. They have, after all, proven themselves to a person to be far more interested in getting re-elected, and getting financial gifts from corporations, than in governing the country in the best interest of its citizens. They have allowed corporations to grow so huge as to be unmanageable at the same time their greed has become insatiable. It is, alas, true, banks and corporations “own” our Congress and therefore even dictate who will be allowed to run for office and how they should vote after being elected. This will certainly not change no matter how many Republicans might be elected, indeed, it will almost certainly get worse. In the period since Obama’s election Republicans have demonstrated their almost complete uselessness, so why should they be elected? I guess they will be elected because they are not Democrats, and there is no viable third party. Thus I guess it is that American voters will legitimately punish Democrats by voting for Republicans who are known to be hopelessly worse. It’s the American way!
American free-enterprise, free-market capitalism, as it has been allowed to flourish in recent years has proven to be a disaster. This was as predictable as the sun rising in the east. Corporations have grown so huge and so powerful as to dictate how it is the country is to be managed, wealth has increasingly accumulated in the hands of a very few, ordinary citizens have no voice and are being systematically reduced to serfdom, and collapse is just around the corner. Nothing can be done to improve the lot of middle or lower class citizens because, of course, that would be “socialism,” a fate we have been led to believe, worse than death. Greed seems to have become the prominent American value, so drill, baby, drill, and keep on until the last ounce of every natural resource has been consumed and the planet made uninhabitable. Remember, “Progress is our most important product,” “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country,” “My country right or wrong,” “Full speed ahead,” “If you’ve seen one Redwood you’ve seen ‘em all,” “Let the coming generations shift for themselves,” “Shop until you drop” (you can always rent still another storage unit), and “God wants us to be rich.” Whee! We’re on a roll!
LKBIQ:
One of the weaknesses of our age is our apparent inability to distinguish our need from our greed.
Author Unknown
TILT:
The Bechuanaland Protectorate, established in 1885, became the Republic of Botswana in 1966.
pornographic picture of man
having intercourse with dead squid.
As usual…I don’t get it. There is all this talk about how the Democrats are liable to lose their majorities in the 2010 election year. Even more interesting is the claim that voters are going to turn to Republicans. That is what I truly don’t “get.” It is not hard to understand why Democrats are going to lose some seats, after all, the country is not in such great shape, what with unemployment, national debt, ongoing “wars,” oil spills, natural disasters, and on and on. But why, I ask, would that lead voters to turn to Republicans? Republicans under Bush/Cheney virtually destroyed our country during their eight nightmare years in office, lying to start an unnecessary, illegal, and immoral “war” with a country that was not a threat to us. They instituted torture, participated in massive war profiteering, ran up the national debt, and were, in short, disastrous as an administration.
What have Republicans done since the election of President Obama? On the positive side you have to admit they have done nothing, absolutely nothing. On the negative side they have boasted of being the party of “no,” and have succeeded overwhelmingly in being just that. They have been exposed repeatedly of the most blatant, even ridiculous hypocrisy. They have put forward no ideas whatsoever as to what they would do to bring our country back to anywhere approaching what we might think of as normal. They have simply proven themselves to be useless, lying hypocrites who should not even have been allowed to draw their salaries (why should they be paid to do nothing). And yet, they seem to believe they are going to make a dramatic comeback in 2010. And apparently others believe this as well. How this can possibly be is a complete mystery to me. I think, however, that after 80 years of being usually wrong about most everything political, I may have figured out why. I guess it’s because I have always assumed that American voters would act at least more or less rationally, and that has proven wrong time after time.
In the coming election I predict there will be a potential “blood bath” when it comes to incumbents. And this, I think, is as it should be. They have, after all, proven themselves to a person to be far more interested in getting re-elected, and getting financial gifts from corporations, than in governing the country in the best interest of its citizens. They have allowed corporations to grow so huge as to be unmanageable at the same time their greed has become insatiable. It is, alas, true, banks and corporations “own” our Congress and therefore even dictate who will be allowed to run for office and how they should vote after being elected. This will certainly not change no matter how many Republicans might be elected, indeed, it will almost certainly get worse. In the period since Obama’s election Republicans have demonstrated their almost complete uselessness, so why should they be elected? I guess they will be elected because they are not Democrats, and there is no viable third party. Thus I guess it is that American voters will legitimately punish Democrats by voting for Republicans who are known to be hopelessly worse. It’s the American way!
American free-enterprise, free-market capitalism, as it has been allowed to flourish in recent years has proven to be a disaster. This was as predictable as the sun rising in the east. Corporations have grown so huge and so powerful as to dictate how it is the country is to be managed, wealth has increasingly accumulated in the hands of a very few, ordinary citizens have no voice and are being systematically reduced to serfdom, and collapse is just around the corner. Nothing can be done to improve the lot of middle or lower class citizens because, of course, that would be “socialism,” a fate we have been led to believe, worse than death. Greed seems to have become the prominent American value, so drill, baby, drill, and keep on until the last ounce of every natural resource has been consumed and the planet made uninhabitable. Remember, “Progress is our most important product,” “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country,” “My country right or wrong,” “Full speed ahead,” “If you’ve seen one Redwood you’ve seen ‘em all,” “Let the coming generations shift for themselves,” “Shop until you drop” (you can always rent still another storage unit), and “God wants us to be rich.” Whee! We’re on a roll!
LKBIQ:
One of the weaknesses of our age is our apparent inability to distinguish our need from our greed.
Author Unknown
TILT:
The Bechuanaland Protectorate, established in 1885, became the Republic of Botswana in 1966.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Three Stooges of the Apocalypse
Suicidal elderly man shoots
himself In head, same bullet
also accidentally kills his wife.
The three stooges of the apocalypse were in rare form today. The only thing lacking was the physical slapstick. As could easily have been predicted, BP blamed Transocean, who in turn blamed Halliburton, who then tried to blame BP. It would have been hilariously funny if the disaster was not such a complete disaster. None of them blamed the U.S. government, but don’t worry, it will not be left out for long. In the meanwhile the well keeps releasing at least 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the gulf (and quite likely that is an underestimate). Their first Rube Goldberg contraption having failed they are now trying a second one, smaller than the first one, and if it fails I guess they will throw down the rubber tires and golf balls. It’s nice to know that we live in a culture in which there is neither accountability nor responsibility, at least not if you are members of the elite corporatocracy (I really dislike this word, if that is even how you spell it).
Also as predictable as the sunrise, Republicans are trying to roviate Elena Kagan, but will probably fail. As she has little in the way of a paper trail, and seems to have managed to reveal very little about her political beliefs, they will doubtless go after her for not having been a judge. This will never work simply because there have been many Supreme Court Justices, including some of the greatest, who were never judges. What I find most amusing about this is that Kagan is being described as a cigar smoking, beer drinking, poker playing “hale fellow well met,” not exactly what you might think of for a Supreme Court Justice. Interestingly enough, this is being said not to criticize her but, rather, to endear her to us as someone who has had “real life experience,” which she hasn’t, having been sheltered at Harvard and a rather elite society all of her life. Anyway, I have no real idea what kind of Justice she will become although I personally think she will tend more toward the conservative side of the aisle than the more liberal side (like Obama himself). But as usual, what do I know?
Things have been going pretty well here at Sandhill of late, except for the very rainy Spring. The broad beans are just breaking through the surface, asparagus is doing likewise, but I fear my potato seed may have already rotted in the ground. Nothing else except peas has been planted as yet, but soon. I have had to tear down an old fence and replace it with a new one. What a job! Never build a fence you think will last forever. It won’t, and it is far more difficult to tear an old fence down than to build a new one. When things go well for an extended period of time it always makes me nervous. My doctor says I am in good health, I worry about that. My blood pressure the other day was 114 over 64, the lowest it has ever been. I think it’s because I have long since given up completely the idea that the human species is worth worrying about. It has become quite clear to me we are incapable of managing our lives and our planet and will soon have to pay the piper, so to speak. I take a kind of sadistic pleasure in knowing that I won’t be around to experience the worst of it. I have no fear of death, but I am a bit nervous about the process of dying. But I confess I rarely think about it.
LKBIQ:
The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
H. L. Mencken
TILT:
Canadian geese mate for life and stay together through all seasons.
himself In head, same bullet
also accidentally kills his wife.
The three stooges of the apocalypse were in rare form today. The only thing lacking was the physical slapstick. As could easily have been predicted, BP blamed Transocean, who in turn blamed Halliburton, who then tried to blame BP. It would have been hilariously funny if the disaster was not such a complete disaster. None of them blamed the U.S. government, but don’t worry, it will not be left out for long. In the meanwhile the well keeps releasing at least 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the gulf (and quite likely that is an underestimate). Their first Rube Goldberg contraption having failed they are now trying a second one, smaller than the first one, and if it fails I guess they will throw down the rubber tires and golf balls. It’s nice to know that we live in a culture in which there is neither accountability nor responsibility, at least not if you are members of the elite corporatocracy (I really dislike this word, if that is even how you spell it).
Also as predictable as the sunrise, Republicans are trying to roviate Elena Kagan, but will probably fail. As she has little in the way of a paper trail, and seems to have managed to reveal very little about her political beliefs, they will doubtless go after her for not having been a judge. This will never work simply because there have been many Supreme Court Justices, including some of the greatest, who were never judges. What I find most amusing about this is that Kagan is being described as a cigar smoking, beer drinking, poker playing “hale fellow well met,” not exactly what you might think of for a Supreme Court Justice. Interestingly enough, this is being said not to criticize her but, rather, to endear her to us as someone who has had “real life experience,” which she hasn’t, having been sheltered at Harvard and a rather elite society all of her life. Anyway, I have no real idea what kind of Justice she will become although I personally think she will tend more toward the conservative side of the aisle than the more liberal side (like Obama himself). But as usual, what do I know?
Things have been going pretty well here at Sandhill of late, except for the very rainy Spring. The broad beans are just breaking through the surface, asparagus is doing likewise, but I fear my potato seed may have already rotted in the ground. Nothing else except peas has been planted as yet, but soon. I have had to tear down an old fence and replace it with a new one. What a job! Never build a fence you think will last forever. It won’t, and it is far more difficult to tear an old fence down than to build a new one. When things go well for an extended period of time it always makes me nervous. My doctor says I am in good health, I worry about that. My blood pressure the other day was 114 over 64, the lowest it has ever been. I think it’s because I have long since given up completely the idea that the human species is worth worrying about. It has become quite clear to me we are incapable of managing our lives and our planet and will soon have to pay the piper, so to speak. I take a kind of sadistic pleasure in knowing that I won’t be around to experience the worst of it. I have no fear of death, but I am a bit nervous about the process of dying. But I confess I rarely think about it.
LKBIQ:
The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
H. L. Mencken
TILT:
Canadian geese mate for life and stay together through all seasons.
Monday, May 10, 2010
We're Being Conned?
While driving, he confesses to
seeing another, she plunges
six-inch knife Into his penis.
I have sadly, regretfully, concluded that we may well be being conned, big time. When you consider what President Obama has done since his election, as opposed to what he has said, you can only wonder where his interests and loyalties lie. Basically, he has continued the Bush/Cheney values, and certainly corporate values, with more than merely random regularity. He has accelerated the useless and nonsensically “war” with Afghanistan. He keeps threatening to bomb Iran. He has kept much of the secrecy characteristic of Bush/Cheney, as well as the illegal wiretapping, executive power, and so on. He pledges loyalty to Israel no matter how they insult him and Biden, and he has not ended “don’t ask, don’t tell,” letting Gates argue speciously that it needs further study. This is nonsense, virtually every major military in the world has had gays serving openly, and I cannot believe it has not been studied and re-studied endlessly. More importantly, he refused to promote a public option even though he claimed to be in favor of such an option, and his widely touted health care bill is little more than a huge present to the insurance industry and the pharmaceuticals. He is in favor of offshore drilling and, what is worse, nuclear energy. The White House recently failed to support a move to break up the huge banks, an absolute necessity if we are to avoid further financial meltdowns. He appointed Sonya Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, at best a middle-of-the roader and at worst more conservative than liberal, and is about to appoint another woman who is also a middle-of-the-roader who probably leans toward the conservative side of the court. He made only very modest changes in the tax code, probably slight enough to avoid the ire of the wealthy and corporations. He has done very little to help Blacks, something they complain about regularly. In short, contrary to his fiery claims of bringing change it has been mostly business as usual, and that business has certainly tended to aid the corporate powers that be. The fact that the tea party people and Republicans in general accuse him of being a socialist or communist is simply ludicrous. They may even be in on the big con that seems to be going on, publicly criticizing him but secretly applauding most everything he has done. I am not a conspiracy theorist but I cannot help but wonder just what is going on. Is Obama just a conservative in sheep’s clothing? I have tried to stick with Obama, if for no other reason he’s been the only game in town, but I confess to becoming more disillusioned day by day.
Is there nothing Republicans will not do or say to try to get their way? Mitch McConnell, for example, has already claimed that as Americans expect their Supreme Court appointees to have judicial experience, and Kagan has none, she is not acceptable. This is absolute nonsense, a complete fabrication, McConnell has no way of knowing what the American people expect and there have been dozens of Supreme Court Justices who were appointed having no judicial experience. Either he is just ignorant or a deliberate liar, and I strongly suspect it is the latter. Coulter has apparently come out with a new book in which she claims liberals supported Hitler (like FDR, I guess). If that is not crazy enough, Hannity has apparently said that Iraq should pay us back all the money we spent “liberating” them. They are supposed to pay us back for illegally and immorally attacking their country, murdering them by the hundreds of thousands, displacing them by the millions, torturing them, and exploiting their country in every way? This goes even beyond insanity (I didn’t realize until just now there must be something beyond insanity, an interesting idea). Lieberman thinks we should strip people of their citizenship if they are even suspected of having anything to do with terrorists. That is, merely on suspicion. I think we should strip people of their office and committee assignments on suspicion of their insanity, Lieberman could be the first to go. Indeed, if we could get rid of Congresspersons on the basis of suspicion of insanity, I’m certain most of them would have to go.
The four-story contraption they tried to cap the leaking oil with failed. I knew it would. I don’t know how I knew it would, but I did. I believe this new one will also fail. Now they are also talking of filling the hole with old tires and golf balls, an idea not more ridiculous than drilling at those depths in the first place. Too bad they can’t figure out how to convert oil into fish food, an idea only half as whacky as their other attempts. What a disaster! What a bunch of greedy morons! Watch them go unpunished while we taxpayers pick up the tab.
LKBIQ:
Do not seek evil gains; evil gains are the equivalent of disaster.
Hesiod
TILT:
It is far harder to remove an old fence than to build a new one.
seeing another, she plunges
six-inch knife Into his penis.
I have sadly, regretfully, concluded that we may well be being conned, big time. When you consider what President Obama has done since his election, as opposed to what he has said, you can only wonder where his interests and loyalties lie. Basically, he has continued the Bush/Cheney values, and certainly corporate values, with more than merely random regularity. He has accelerated the useless and nonsensically “war” with Afghanistan. He keeps threatening to bomb Iran. He has kept much of the secrecy characteristic of Bush/Cheney, as well as the illegal wiretapping, executive power, and so on. He pledges loyalty to Israel no matter how they insult him and Biden, and he has not ended “don’t ask, don’t tell,” letting Gates argue speciously that it needs further study. This is nonsense, virtually every major military in the world has had gays serving openly, and I cannot believe it has not been studied and re-studied endlessly. More importantly, he refused to promote a public option even though he claimed to be in favor of such an option, and his widely touted health care bill is little more than a huge present to the insurance industry and the pharmaceuticals. He is in favor of offshore drilling and, what is worse, nuclear energy. The White House recently failed to support a move to break up the huge banks, an absolute necessity if we are to avoid further financial meltdowns. He appointed Sonya Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, at best a middle-of-the roader and at worst more conservative than liberal, and is about to appoint another woman who is also a middle-of-the-roader who probably leans toward the conservative side of the court. He made only very modest changes in the tax code, probably slight enough to avoid the ire of the wealthy and corporations. He has done very little to help Blacks, something they complain about regularly. In short, contrary to his fiery claims of bringing change it has been mostly business as usual, and that business has certainly tended to aid the corporate powers that be. The fact that the tea party people and Republicans in general accuse him of being a socialist or communist is simply ludicrous. They may even be in on the big con that seems to be going on, publicly criticizing him but secretly applauding most everything he has done. I am not a conspiracy theorist but I cannot help but wonder just what is going on. Is Obama just a conservative in sheep’s clothing? I have tried to stick with Obama, if for no other reason he’s been the only game in town, but I confess to becoming more disillusioned day by day.
Is there nothing Republicans will not do or say to try to get their way? Mitch McConnell, for example, has already claimed that as Americans expect their Supreme Court appointees to have judicial experience, and Kagan has none, she is not acceptable. This is absolute nonsense, a complete fabrication, McConnell has no way of knowing what the American people expect and there have been dozens of Supreme Court Justices who were appointed having no judicial experience. Either he is just ignorant or a deliberate liar, and I strongly suspect it is the latter. Coulter has apparently come out with a new book in which she claims liberals supported Hitler (like FDR, I guess). If that is not crazy enough, Hannity has apparently said that Iraq should pay us back all the money we spent “liberating” them. They are supposed to pay us back for illegally and immorally attacking their country, murdering them by the hundreds of thousands, displacing them by the millions, torturing them, and exploiting their country in every way? This goes even beyond insanity (I didn’t realize until just now there must be something beyond insanity, an interesting idea). Lieberman thinks we should strip people of their citizenship if they are even suspected of having anything to do with terrorists. That is, merely on suspicion. I think we should strip people of their office and committee assignments on suspicion of their insanity, Lieberman could be the first to go. Indeed, if we could get rid of Congresspersons on the basis of suspicion of insanity, I’m certain most of them would have to go.
The four-story contraption they tried to cap the leaking oil with failed. I knew it would. I don’t know how I knew it would, but I did. I believe this new one will also fail. Now they are also talking of filling the hole with old tires and golf balls, an idea not more ridiculous than drilling at those depths in the first place. Too bad they can’t figure out how to convert oil into fish food, an idea only half as whacky as their other attempts. What a disaster! What a bunch of greedy morons! Watch them go unpunished while we taxpayers pick up the tab.
LKBIQ:
Do not seek evil gains; evil gains are the equivalent of disaster.
Hesiod
TILT:
It is far harder to remove an old fence than to build a new one.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
The Secret History of the American Empire - book
The Secret History of the American Empire, John Perkins (Dutton, 2007)
John Perkins, as you probably know, is the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, his account of how he and others like him employed the most insidious tactics to help create the U.S. (secret) empire. Apparently after many years of participating in this brutal, unethical, and dishonest endeavor, feelings of guilt overcame him and he felt the need to confess. This current book is a continuation of that confession with many more cases and details and, finally, some recommendations for how we might bring about meaningful change.
I believe that everyone should read both of these eye-opening and sensational books, and reflect carefully on what our country has been about for so many years. As they read in part almost like spy novels there is a tendency to not take it all seriously, but that would be a great mistake. Perkins was there, he participated, he knows what he is talking about, and if it seems stranger than fiction, it is. Both books are well written, easy to read, pull few, if any, punches, and would actually be enjoyable if they were not so unpleasantly true. I bet even Republicans could manage to read them if they would (unlikely). Personally, I would recommend they be required reading for all graduating High School seniors, a recommendation so “far out” it would be like claiming George Washington didn’t cut down the cherry tree.
During his tenure as an economic hit man Perkins participated in events all over the globe. He reviews many of the “projects” in different parts of the world: Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. Everywhere the methods and techniques used to exploit other nations were the same. This basically amounted to finding corrupt officials, Presidents, Dictators, high-level officials, those with power, offering them fortunes for going along with schemes designed to exploit their resources and impoverish their people, and then keeping them so indebted to the IMF or the World Bank they could not resist doing what they were ordered to do. It was a clever scheme that allowed us to create a world-wide empire without having always to resort to naked military aggression. But when the usual procedures failed to work, as they sometimes did when they encountered an honest man or woman, they did not hesitate to call in the “jackals,” the true hit men who carried out assassinations on command (this seems to have been not at all uncommon). After the publication of Perkin’s first book, some of these individuals approached him with their stories, knowing they carried the same burden of guilt that motivated Perkins to write his confession. The books are so fascinating, and read in part so like fiction, I think the style may actually be a tad inappropriate for the seriousness of the subject matter, but maybe not.
While I found his accounts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa of great interest, and there is no doubt of their tremendous importance to world affairs, I found the section on Latin America to be the most interesting, and the outcomes of unusual significance. Here we encountered some rare leaders in recent years that could not be corrupted, and who together are bringing about the most monumental changes in the world, and certainly in the Secret Empire. Presidents of Latin American countries, like Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Michelle Bachelet, Cristina Fernandez De Kirchner, Luis Inacio “Lula” Da Silva, Rafael Delgado, Alan Garcia Perez, and others, have moved away from so much U.S. influence, and have discussed joining together for defense and switching their military objectives away from defending multinational corporations to defending their countries from foreign intervention. Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, in particular, have avoided assassination as well as the temptation of big money for doing “the right thing” (selling out their countrymen to corporate exploitation). The relationship of Latin American countries to the U.S. has changed dramatically, they will never again be at the mercy of those who wish only to exploit their labor and resources. This is a change so profound I doubt the full implications of it have completely registered with our unusually dimwitted Congress. Our loss of empire is beginning in Latin America but will inevitably not stop there. You do, I believe, eventually have to pay for your sins.
While I applaud Perkins for his honesty and his exposing of American greed and dishonesty, when it comes to his recommendations for what we might do to change all this, I wonder that he may be overly optimistic. He speaks of the “New Capitalism,” that may result from the pressure on corporations to change their behavior and recognize they should cease being so exploitive. I have no doubt that in some cases corporations have been forced to change their behaviors in ways that are more citizen friendly, but I wonder how realistic it is to believe they will truly change, given their primary motive is short-term profit. Further, it has been obvious for a long time that short-term profits may prove to be eventually disastrous in the long run, but this has not significantly motivated much change so far. What is worse, I fear, is that what he suggests will be immediately termed “socialism” by the powers that be, and Americans have been conditioned to respond to the term “socialism” in the same way they respond to the term “rattlesnake.” I wish I could be as optimistic as Perkins, but, alas, I am not. We desperately need a form of “Democratic Socialism,” but, of course, that would require the filthy rich and the corporations to pay more taxes, a genuine “no-no” here in the good old U.S. of Greed, exploitation, and short-sightedness. The empire is beginning to crumble.
John Perkins, as you probably know, is the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, his account of how he and others like him employed the most insidious tactics to help create the U.S. (secret) empire. Apparently after many years of participating in this brutal, unethical, and dishonest endeavor, feelings of guilt overcame him and he felt the need to confess. This current book is a continuation of that confession with many more cases and details and, finally, some recommendations for how we might bring about meaningful change.
I believe that everyone should read both of these eye-opening and sensational books, and reflect carefully on what our country has been about for so many years. As they read in part almost like spy novels there is a tendency to not take it all seriously, but that would be a great mistake. Perkins was there, he participated, he knows what he is talking about, and if it seems stranger than fiction, it is. Both books are well written, easy to read, pull few, if any, punches, and would actually be enjoyable if they were not so unpleasantly true. I bet even Republicans could manage to read them if they would (unlikely). Personally, I would recommend they be required reading for all graduating High School seniors, a recommendation so “far out” it would be like claiming George Washington didn’t cut down the cherry tree.
During his tenure as an economic hit man Perkins participated in events all over the globe. He reviews many of the “projects” in different parts of the world: Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. Everywhere the methods and techniques used to exploit other nations were the same. This basically amounted to finding corrupt officials, Presidents, Dictators, high-level officials, those with power, offering them fortunes for going along with schemes designed to exploit their resources and impoverish their people, and then keeping them so indebted to the IMF or the World Bank they could not resist doing what they were ordered to do. It was a clever scheme that allowed us to create a world-wide empire without having always to resort to naked military aggression. But when the usual procedures failed to work, as they sometimes did when they encountered an honest man or woman, they did not hesitate to call in the “jackals,” the true hit men who carried out assassinations on command (this seems to have been not at all uncommon). After the publication of Perkin’s first book, some of these individuals approached him with their stories, knowing they carried the same burden of guilt that motivated Perkins to write his confession. The books are so fascinating, and read in part so like fiction, I think the style may actually be a tad inappropriate for the seriousness of the subject matter, but maybe not.
While I found his accounts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa of great interest, and there is no doubt of their tremendous importance to world affairs, I found the section on Latin America to be the most interesting, and the outcomes of unusual significance. Here we encountered some rare leaders in recent years that could not be corrupted, and who together are bringing about the most monumental changes in the world, and certainly in the Secret Empire. Presidents of Latin American countries, like Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Michelle Bachelet, Cristina Fernandez De Kirchner, Luis Inacio “Lula” Da Silva, Rafael Delgado, Alan Garcia Perez, and others, have moved away from so much U.S. influence, and have discussed joining together for defense and switching their military objectives away from defending multinational corporations to defending their countries from foreign intervention. Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, in particular, have avoided assassination as well as the temptation of big money for doing “the right thing” (selling out their countrymen to corporate exploitation). The relationship of Latin American countries to the U.S. has changed dramatically, they will never again be at the mercy of those who wish only to exploit their labor and resources. This is a change so profound I doubt the full implications of it have completely registered with our unusually dimwitted Congress. Our loss of empire is beginning in Latin America but will inevitably not stop there. You do, I believe, eventually have to pay for your sins.
While I applaud Perkins for his honesty and his exposing of American greed and dishonesty, when it comes to his recommendations for what we might do to change all this, I wonder that he may be overly optimistic. He speaks of the “New Capitalism,” that may result from the pressure on corporations to change their behavior and recognize they should cease being so exploitive. I have no doubt that in some cases corporations have been forced to change their behaviors in ways that are more citizen friendly, but I wonder how realistic it is to believe they will truly change, given their primary motive is short-term profit. Further, it has been obvious for a long time that short-term profits may prove to be eventually disastrous in the long run, but this has not significantly motivated much change so far. What is worse, I fear, is that what he suggests will be immediately termed “socialism” by the powers that be, and Americans have been conditioned to respond to the term “socialism” in the same way they respond to the term “rattlesnake.” I wish I could be as optimistic as Perkins, but, alas, I am not. We desperately need a form of “Democratic Socialism,” but, of course, that would require the filthy rich and the corporations to pay more taxes, a genuine “no-no” here in the good old U.S. of Greed, exploitation, and short-sightedness. The empire is beginning to crumble.
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Semi-good things?
Texas woman unsatisfied
with husband’s performance
in bed, stabs him with scissors.
Is it possible that at least semi-good things may be happening, maybe, possibly, perhaps. There are, for example, hints there may be talks leading up to an agreement with the Taliban that might allow for beginning to withdraw some of our troops. At least that is what Karzai is supposed to be bringing up with President Obama. If this is true, and if something actually worked out, perhaps we could cease being involved in a totally unnecessary and fruitless “war” in that beleaguered country and stop stubbornly trying to do something everyone knows is impossible (“win,” that is).
Equally important, perhaps even more important, it was reported today the Palestinians are prepared to begin (indirect) peace talks with Israel. I cannot understand how this could be unless there is some kind of agreement, however temporary, that Israel will stop their illegal building in Jerusalem (I have seen conflicting reports on this). Maybe it was Obama’s threat to turn the situation over to an international commission if there was no movement on the peace process before Fall. I hope it is the case that Obama and George Mitchell are doing better work than is being reported. While I regard this is a positive sign I don’t really believe anything will ultimately come of it because I don’t believe the Israelis want peace. They prefer the status quo that allows them to believe in their innate superiority and defines the Palestinians as inferior creatures who, as only good for wage slavery or death, do not deserve equality of any kind. That the world, and especially the U.S., has put up with this for so many years, will surely go down in human history as one of its most shameful periods.
And speaking of doing the impossible it appears that a great many people, perhaps even a majority of people, do not believe sanctions against Iran will work, or at least not the sanctions that will be employed, as many think the world is not prepared to employ sanctions strong enough to make much difference. The view that sanctions won’t work doesn’t seem to keep Obama and Congress from insisting on them. So, as in the case of Afghanistan, we will just keep butting our heads against the wall trying to do the impossible. As near as I can tell the idea of sanctioning Iran has to do with our fantasy they are doing something wrong. There is no evidence this is true, but as the Israelis keep insisting it is, it’s just like Goebbels said, tell a lie long enough and people will come to believe it. I simply do not understand this hatred of Iran, (although I certainly understand why they might well hate us). There is a commercial by some veterans group for renewable energy that I am all in favor of, but one of the lines in the commercial is that Iran is “peddling hate.” It appears to me this is the opposite of what is happening, and what is happening is the same kind of bullying that is going on among our young people, someone (Iran) has been singled out and all the bullies have joined in to make their lives miserable (except the Russians and the Chinese who are much more realistic about this than others). In any case, sanctions won’t work, but that won’t keep us from imposing them anyway. We never seem to learn.
The disastrous oil leak in the bottom of the Gulf continues. The attempt to semi-cap it with a Rube Goldberg contraption failed. As I understand it, it failed because the water at that depth is just too cold and kept the jury-rigged device from working properly. Why did all the hot-shot engineers and deep-water drillers not know this? I suspect it’s because in fact they don’t know what they are doing drilling at that depth and without the proper safety devices. This is an accident that should never have happened because they should not have been allowed to drill that deep in the first place. They lied about the state of their technology and expertise and now we will all have to pay the price for their unfettered greed. BP should not have suggested such a job, the drilling company should never have agreed to try it, and the government never should have allowed it, and certainly not when they did not have the proper shut-off machinery (thanks apparently to Dick the Slimy). Someone suggested that all BP assets in the U.S. should be impounded and the Executives should be put on trial and probably jailed. I agree. But as Bush/Cheney committed far more egregious crimes of torture and murder and have not been held accountable I don’t suppose the BP people will be either. Our new laws seem to say that when corporations fail they should not be accountable and the taxpayers should pay for their greedy mistakes.
And finally, maybe, just maybe, we may be turning the corner on the problem of unemployment, but there is a long way to go.
LKBIQ:
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
Ambrose Bierce
TILT:
Cooking bacon in the oven is far superior to frying it.
with husband’s performance
in bed, stabs him with scissors.
Is it possible that at least semi-good things may be happening, maybe, possibly, perhaps. There are, for example, hints there may be talks leading up to an agreement with the Taliban that might allow for beginning to withdraw some of our troops. At least that is what Karzai is supposed to be bringing up with President Obama. If this is true, and if something actually worked out, perhaps we could cease being involved in a totally unnecessary and fruitless “war” in that beleaguered country and stop stubbornly trying to do something everyone knows is impossible (“win,” that is).
Equally important, perhaps even more important, it was reported today the Palestinians are prepared to begin (indirect) peace talks with Israel. I cannot understand how this could be unless there is some kind of agreement, however temporary, that Israel will stop their illegal building in Jerusalem (I have seen conflicting reports on this). Maybe it was Obama’s threat to turn the situation over to an international commission if there was no movement on the peace process before Fall. I hope it is the case that Obama and George Mitchell are doing better work than is being reported. While I regard this is a positive sign I don’t really believe anything will ultimately come of it because I don’t believe the Israelis want peace. They prefer the status quo that allows them to believe in their innate superiority and defines the Palestinians as inferior creatures who, as only good for wage slavery or death, do not deserve equality of any kind. That the world, and especially the U.S., has put up with this for so many years, will surely go down in human history as one of its most shameful periods.
And speaking of doing the impossible it appears that a great many people, perhaps even a majority of people, do not believe sanctions against Iran will work, or at least not the sanctions that will be employed, as many think the world is not prepared to employ sanctions strong enough to make much difference. The view that sanctions won’t work doesn’t seem to keep Obama and Congress from insisting on them. So, as in the case of Afghanistan, we will just keep butting our heads against the wall trying to do the impossible. As near as I can tell the idea of sanctioning Iran has to do with our fantasy they are doing something wrong. There is no evidence this is true, but as the Israelis keep insisting it is, it’s just like Goebbels said, tell a lie long enough and people will come to believe it. I simply do not understand this hatred of Iran, (although I certainly understand why they might well hate us). There is a commercial by some veterans group for renewable energy that I am all in favor of, but one of the lines in the commercial is that Iran is “peddling hate.” It appears to me this is the opposite of what is happening, and what is happening is the same kind of bullying that is going on among our young people, someone (Iran) has been singled out and all the bullies have joined in to make their lives miserable (except the Russians and the Chinese who are much more realistic about this than others). In any case, sanctions won’t work, but that won’t keep us from imposing them anyway. We never seem to learn.
The disastrous oil leak in the bottom of the Gulf continues. The attempt to semi-cap it with a Rube Goldberg contraption failed. As I understand it, it failed because the water at that depth is just too cold and kept the jury-rigged device from working properly. Why did all the hot-shot engineers and deep-water drillers not know this? I suspect it’s because in fact they don’t know what they are doing drilling at that depth and without the proper safety devices. This is an accident that should never have happened because they should not have been allowed to drill that deep in the first place. They lied about the state of their technology and expertise and now we will all have to pay the price for their unfettered greed. BP should not have suggested such a job, the drilling company should never have agreed to try it, and the government never should have allowed it, and certainly not when they did not have the proper shut-off machinery (thanks apparently to Dick the Slimy). Someone suggested that all BP assets in the U.S. should be impounded and the Executives should be put on trial and probably jailed. I agree. But as Bush/Cheney committed far more egregious crimes of torture and murder and have not been held accountable I don’t suppose the BP people will be either. Our new laws seem to say that when corporations fail they should not be accountable and the taxpayers should pay for their greedy mistakes.
And finally, maybe, just maybe, we may be turning the corner on the problem of unemployment, but there is a long way to go.
LKBIQ:
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
Ambrose Bierce
TILT:
Cooking bacon in the oven is far superior to frying it.
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