Despite my better judgement, I actually sat about 20 yeards away from a real, honest-to-God, blow-em-up fireworks presentation on July 4. It was on the shores of Lake Buchanan, about 65 miles west, northwest of Austin, in the hill country. It was fun, noisy and colorful, and the two "presenters" were semi-pros at this; no one was hurt and everyone applauded. These same two pyrotechnical hobbyists also manufactured a large noise maker (they call it a "Salute"), which upon detonation merely creates a giant orange glow in the sky and leaves everyone nearby deaf for several minutes, afterwards. That monster went off at the local firehouse around 11 PM. Fortunately, there were no fire calls at that time, because all of the firemen in attendance couldn't hear a thing. During the evening, I was thinking, though, about two possible events which could have occured in today's world, but did not.
The first was that the DHS did not rush out to Lake Buchanan, in miniscule little Kingsland, TX, and arrest our two "bomb makers" as terrorists, under the Patriot ACT, for trying to blow up a fire station. I fully expected to to see Howard Chertoff in a hard hat, with the Army National Guard in humvees and heliocopters, but they never materialized. I was disappointed. And all of that so close to Crawford,too. A wonderful missed propoganda opportunity. They could have saved Dubya and preserved the peace of west central Texas. And spent millions in the process.
The second thought was that I was reminded of the warnings I'd been reading for weeks, from writers and bloggers on the far left, that the government would set off a "false flag" attack, to rally support for the bombing of Iran, by blowing up the Houston ship channel during the holiday festivities. By midnight, that had not yet occured. I'm still waiting. I don't trust anybody. And if it had happened, the boys at the fire house wouldn't have been able to hear it, anyway.
All the while, as the rockets produced red glares, and the bombs were bursting in air, all around the miles of shoreline around Lake Buchanan, I kept remembering that the Chinese had invented gunpowder. And as all of these explosive devices were going off, a little cash register in my head was calculating the increase in the US/China trade deficit and how much the cost of these fireworks were adding to the vast sums of money we already owe the Chinese banks for financing the war in Iraq (Ted Koeppel says it is somewhere between $600B and one Trillion. How the hell much is that?). Not that it matters, much: what could our national holiday have possibly cost us? I'm sure it was less than what we pay Halliburton a day for food a fuel in the desert or what we spend for electricity a day in the Green Zone. Or what it would have cost to save Kingsland, TX from the terrorists.
Life goes on in Texas
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Not feeling like a firecracker
July 4 is just two days away. Fireworks are null and void in most of central Texas: we have had no rain in weeks and the world is very brown and very dry. One good bottle rocket and your whole house and yard could be the neighborhood's largest hot dog and marshmallow fest.
The news has announced that on this Fourth, our National Shrub will be speaking to new citizens, being sworn in that day at Monticello: this raises hypocrisy to new levels. At the same time, Dick Cheney will be blustering about pirates ar some such nonsense, from the deck of the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor: another moment in the theater of the absurd. Had Bush and Cheney both stood on and for the real Constitution while they were in office, instead of shredding it, we wouldn't be facing the messes we are . This too, shall pass.
I said some time ago I would wait out the primaries and the general election to see who would win, then plot my course of action from there. I have learned much from McCain and Obama of late: I'm flip-flopping. While I was very relieved when the Democratic primary was over, Hillary threw in the towel and Obama became "presumptive", that relief has now given way to dismay and disillusionment. My enthusiasm for BO has gone from , Oh, Yeah! Right on!", to "Oh, well. If I have no other choice." I started becoming uneasy when he wrote a check from his supporter's donations to help out with the Clinton campaign debt. They have lots of money and they spent like drunken sailors. And he gives THEM a check? Maybe Barack is afraid of Bill. Then, as the press says, Barack's knees got "wobbly"on what to do about Iraq if elected, he has waffled and been decisionless about the FISA bill and possible prosecution, and now he is pandering to the religious right about faith based initiatives. First he seemed to moving to center stage, which is fine: we cold use some of that. But now he seems to be moving much farther to the right of the stage. Most of what I applauded and that I thought he stood for seems to be fading away as he works purely to garner votes and thereby sacrifice principals. As some have suggested, we really should make "character" an issue in this campaign. I feel somewhat betrayed, because Obama, like MCCain, seems to be becoming one rather than having any. I was reminded by two articles this morning, that I should not forget that he is a politician. Oops. My "wait and see" attitude has become more of "wait and worry". Pandering to evangelicals pushes me about as far as I can go without coming completely unglued. Too bad. Alas, poor Obie. I thought I knew him well.
What follows is the latest installment in what happens when my fingers get stuck in the keyboard. One early reviewer denounced it as much too long and my son decried it as much too dreary and pessimistic. Grab a new cup of whatever you are drinking, and read on if you are brave and stalwart:
The United Jurassic States of America
An Allegory (?) in Memory of George Carlin.
When my youngest son was very small, even before he could read well, dinosaurs were his best friends. From his first introduction to these human precursors, he had a strong kinship with them. We bought and read books about them, he looked at the pictures, drew pictures of them and built skeletal models. If we could get to a museum, to see an assembled fossil, we went, and any even remotely relevant television program was a must see. He (we) marveled at them, fantasized about them and made up a terrible and unending strings of “saurus” jokes all the time.: “My triceratops yours”; “Move your big bronto butt over so I can sit down”; “you must have a brain the size of a walnut”, “Clean up your room. What are you, mesosaurus wrecks?”etc. And if Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble had lived next door, Nick would not have given them a second thought.
But certain aspects of being “dino-aware” demanded awe and respect. There was never any denying the impressiveness of the really big ones, like the brontosaurus: it towered over everything; you had to pay homage to the king, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and marvel at his teeth and his speed. The warriors of this society commanded attention as well, the varied ancestors of the rhinoceros, with their heavy plating and horns, and tails lined and rowed with deadly spikes. And some were even reported to fly (dactyls ?). Some were the first stealth predators (remember Jurassic Park?), the dreaded raptors (we have fighter planes named for them, today) and some were merely content to loll about, eating greenery. They were the first vegans, I guess.
But carnivore, herbivore or omnivore, on land, in the water or in the sky, they made their mark on the face of the earth for millions of years and later re-appeared in stone and imprint to captivate the minds and imaginations today of scientists, anthropologists and young children like my son. But they went extinct. Oops.
The reason for recalling such memories and the many images of these early creatures was that I was busy looking for a symbol, a metaphor or a suitable collection of word pictures to use to describe the United States of America, today. It, too, has many forms and descriptions, has many aspects and behaves in many different ways, on and in the land, the water and the sky. It is leaving its mark and its impressions on the face of the earth, as well. It is attracting attention and captivating the minds of scholars, politicos, historians, the general populations of the world, and, for now, at least, contemporary cultural anthropologists. Some day, if we manage to do our worst, the children and grandchildren of these curious groups may well be the kind of anthropologists that sift through the remains, skeletons and remnants of what once was here, in an attempt to figure out what we (The United States of America) once was. They will, some days hence, be looking to discover what we did, what we stood for, stood against and what we did about it. They will examine our (possibly charred) fossilized remains, look at our WMD’s, rifle through our vast accumulated waste and search for the answer to the question of why we (the US of A) went extinct (this is a lot like the phrase “went missing”, used in today’s inaccurate vernacular, but far more serious. You can sometimes be found and recover from being missing. Being extinct is far more permanent. Ask a dodo).
Put rather simply, the United States of America was born somewhat abruptly.If you look at the short span of space and time of human existence, the US emerged almost over night. In the grand scheme of events, from the first thirteen oppressed colonies, it appeared as a nearly full-grown bird of freedom almost instantaneously. The mark left behind by its birth changed the face of the world. The Founding Fathers were propelled by their indignance and resentments, their zeal and their collective intellect, to say, “Enough. No More. George, go home! And stay there!”. Supported by the keen desire for liberty and the compounded robust and restless ire of the people, and motivated by the then radical notion that “all men are created equal”, the great bird took to the sky and vanquished the oppressor. The revolution dawned a new day. Funny, that today, many are again saying, “George, go home. Stay there”. Déjà vu.
Wow! What a great story! An epic adventure in humanity! A monumental triumph! What an inspiration!
However, 200 hundred years have passed and that revolution has faded. Some say we have been asleep, off duty, unaware. It has given way to a reverse evolution, a de-volution. The great symbol of liberty, freedom, success and equality evolved backwards from an eagle to a dinosaur. Almost imperceptibly to some, time began running rearwards and the behemoth, lumbering beast of the Jurassic past came back to life. This “saurus”, however, is not so loveable or loved.
Unlike the extinction of the first dinosaurs, which occurred when Mother Nature and the universe arbitrarily decided to pummel the earth with a giant asteroid (if you subscribe to that theory: my son and I do). This event caused enough cold and darkness for long enough to starve out every living thing (almost) and life nearly had to start from scratch. Life as a dinosaur was mostly fun until that happened. The end of their existence was not their fault. They never saw it coming or had a clue. Suddenly, someone had to ask, “Who turned out the lights?”, and “Where did my lunch go?”
Note: If you are a believer in or practitioner of Intelligent Design, this would be a good time to stop reading .If you have any visions of an early George W. Bush, riding a saddled dinosaur around the early Texas range, rounding up prehistoric cattle or chickens for dinner, you will not find any comfort or solace in this piece, from this point forward. It just gets to be more like real biology and Darwin. Sorry.
This was a sad and unfortunate, non-storybook ending for the Jurassic Park inhabitants, but it need not hold true for this modern day dinosaur called the United States of America. At the moment, there is no one, giant asteroid on the galactic horizon, that we know of. But our dinosaur has some internal tumors and ulcerations that require immediate attention. There are also some outside extremists and agitators, a few meddling boneheads and the usual assortment of idolaters and misguided icon worshippers (bureaucrats) lurking about, but there always have been. If we are lucky, they usually die from a lack of attention as the health of the afflicted beast improves. Despite the last nearly eight years, we still have some available medications that will help: common sense, rules of law, a Constitution and some remaining shreds of democracy. And therapists are standing by to take your call, should you want to join in the cause: philosophers, historians, educators, scholars, ethicists, and an educated public. Many of us truly believe that most of the smaller, current and short-sighted habits of this beast are fixable with time. But the bigger public behavior problems, the eating habits and the extremely impaired vision problems of this creature are going to be hard to tackle. And they certainly cannot be addressed all at once. That would require major surgery, aka, another revolution, and it doesn’t seem like America is quite ready for that. At least not just yet. Besides, you don’t just “move” something this big, overnight.
Working from the inside, out.
Our big, lumbering mammal’s organs are all sick. Any physician worth his mettle will tell you that nothing that manifests itself on the outside of a sick being will be pleasant, as long as the insides are not well. All thinking and behavior is adversely affected by the illnesses within. So we go first to the brain of old saurus, which, like those of all dinos, is quite small, limited in capacity and able to deliberate only very slowly. The poor thing suffers from believing that it is an all-powerful “megasaurus” and doesn’t even know that it processes information at only a snail’s pace, and its little brain has become almost completely ineffective, when it comes to problem solving. Its arteries (the halls and offices of congress and the federal agencies) are clogged with inept elected officials (aka, dolts), incompetent political appointees (FEMA) and lobbyists (robber barons). It is almost pure administrative cholesterol. Blood thinners and anti-coagulants in the form of more open, less expensive and more aggressive elections would help all that. But something needs to be done soon. And don’t call in the drug companies to help; it will cost too much , take too long to test and evaluate, be subject to approval by the same government that needs the treatment (it is in denial) and will no doubt have bad side effects. If you leave it up to this “brain”, the cure will never get to market. There is too much money at stake. To remove the lobbyists alone, you would need to flood K Street with something which is a total disincentive for personal gain. There are some remedies on the market which can help. These include virulent doses of humility, a ban on limo services, no free lunches (or vacations in Ecuador or Paraguay) and certifications that the participants are both germ and slime free. And a general tax on greed. All tough to pull off, but doable if these clowns are all subject to evaluation by a new and sanitized EPA. We have the technology; we just have to use it. It is all outlined in a book called “Ethics”. I know we have a copy, somewhere.
A small but especially troublesome (and troubled) corner of the brain is called the Executive Branch. Both its’ East and West wings appear broken and it hasn’t flown for some time. Before it flounders around on the floor any more, or leaves behind more remnants of misguided loyalty feathers, the whole area should be scrubbed, flushed out and sanitized. This is particularly true for the chairs of the POTUS and Vice-POTUS: these held the resident WMD’s. The entire branch should be made ready for new blood, fresh air and less accumulated fecal matter. Weapons, bald-faced lies, self-delusion and cowboy arrogance should be eliminated completely. Clear out all the brush.
Once this is done, there will be less chance that the Judiciary enclave, or the mysterious “mental rule book and cloakroom” of the brain, will tip any further to the right. Although small, this component of the brain has the ability to bring the whole beast crashing to the ground if it gets any more lopsided. And if dino goes down completely, well, there’s that extinction thing again. “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” will echo around the world.
Somewhere, buried under all of this mess in this troubled brain, is an item labeled, “The Constitution of These United States.” When we find it again, (it has been under wraps for about seven years), we should be very careful not to lose it again, spill anything on it, blur it or alter it in anyway. THIS IS THE COLLECTION OF CAREFULLY CRAFTED DEMOCRATIC THREADS, PROVIDED BY THE FOUNDING FATHERS, IN WHICH THE FUTURE BALANCE HANGS. ITS’ CONTENTS ARE THE BEST AND FINAL DEFENSE AGAINST EXTINCTION.
Other Vital Organs
By all reports, and according to some recent medical prognostications, the heart of the dinosaur is still beating. But within the last 100 years, it has done itself no favors, health-wise. For openers, it has become the worst of all possible omnivores. It can’t think very well, but it sure can eat. It devours everything in sight: natural resources, clean air and its sources, huge quantities of oil, human energy and civil liberties. The seemingly unending desire to consume the elements of the high life, private airplanes, most of the world’s food stuffs and energy, expensive automobiles and prime real estate has pushed the liver to its limits and starved the stomach for nutrients. The military industrial complex drives even more consumption and the imbalance of sustainable trade is leaving the body muscles weak. The muscles, the tendons, the plasma, the electrolytes and whatever else it takes to keep this dinosaur upright and moving consist of the people who live inside the beast, the populace. They strive to convert whatever raw energy is left, after the military and the corporations and the diplomats are done, into useful products, capital and the replenishment of sustainable resources. It takes more and more effort every day for the dinosaur to just walk, and it has grown obese, cannot turn and adjust quickly and relies mostly on fond memories of when it used to be lithe, slim and attracted the fond attention of the rest of the world. Those days appear to be gone, forever. And the muscle and the tendons and sinew and the bloodstream cannot live on bread and water forever. If you just keep gorging the liver on an empty stomach and clogging the arteries, you are asking for a heart attack. I doubt there is a single defibulator big enough to jump-start this once athletic behemoth.
There are other complications involved if we take dino into rehab. Lately, because he was told there isn’t enough oil, he has taken to drinking large quantities of ethanol. Everybody else in the world saloon may be doing it too, but it is bad for the liver, causes an equally expensive drunk and puts a crimp in the corn supply/food chain. Along with the ethanol, dino has swallowed the story that there isn’t enough oil, that “peak” oil is here and that we have to go drilling in places we shouldn’t to get more. It’s too cold for dinosaurs in the ANWR, and dinos can’t really swim, so the coastal shelf is out, too. Those K Street lobbyists in that brain that needs flushing have clogged up some more arteries with big oil money; the drunken dinosaur has been convinced he needs a new, different and more expensive fix. He is wobbling down the street, gazing lustfully at nuclear reactors, and has also just discovered he is not the only creature in the neighborhood. It seems there is another dinosaur waking up in China and one in India. They are also both omnivores and both like oil. China’s dinosaur is healthier, has more muscle to flex and more money to throw around. Sadly, most of that money came from OUR dinosaur in the first place. What goes around comes back to Chinese banks.
As the dino wobbles, he is inhaling lots of toxic fumes, because the brain has been ignoring the warnings of the EPA and the Al Gore influences for a long time. The dinosaur has a smoking habit, refuses to try nicotine gum and this entire foul intake is making all the people and the planet sick. American Dino and his Chinese soulmate are exhaling CO2 at a great rate. But the brain likes smoke filled rooms, so no one is paying attention. And the big energy boys from K Street are in there, puffing away.
The rest of the problem
Bringing the dinosaur back to good health is one mighty and noble goal. If that can be achieved, the next round of challenges have to do with what to do about how the beast has interacted with the rest of the planetary neighborhood. The dinosaur has very large feet, poor vision, a large dangerous spiked tail, bad spawning habits and a real knack for alienating other dinosaurs and people in general.
In wobbling around, the big feet have stepped on many people, countries and governments that didn’t invite the intrusions. Civil rights and liberties have been abused, wealth misappropriated, resources plundered and entire cultures mauled. In the wake of the beast’s wandering, the tail has lashed back and forth behind it, often leaving death and destruction, havoc and despair. And the wandering path has been global. Please remember that this dinosaur does not bear young: it only lays eggs. And most of the eggs it has laid have gone rotten. Very few have hatched new freedoms or great birds of liberty like ours once was. While having no inkling of some of the devastation left in its wake, our dinosaur is also not popular around the world. Perhaps most sadly, the fact is that the dinosaur’s own vision of itself is so weak and inaccurate, that it has no clue how poorly he (it) is perceived on the world stage. By the way, this “selective perception” also allows dino to ignore misery in its own back yard. This is another vision problem. Look in Wikipedia under “Katrina”. In addition to the fixes and cures mentioned earlier, dino could use a good optometrist.
In the last of what has been nearly a decade, this “brain’s ” behavior has been particularly disruptive in this regard. Its vocabulary (“speechifyin”) and social skills (unsolicited back rubs) from the executive branch, have been below par and disgusting. Both the executive and legislative branches have co-opted and abused the MSM to the point where no outlay of information is credible or to be trusted. The “brain” is convinced it can tell the American people anything, and they will accept it as gospel, “good news”.
But the good news is increasingly the bad news. The rich get richer and the poor get even less than they used to. And the middle class is vanishing into the bowels of a dinosaur totally unaware of their role in the possibilities of survival and the avoidance of extinction. What’s that you say, “SO?” Thank you, Dick.
Expats leave every day, in mourning of the imminent passing of an old friend. They leave a country that once trumpeted the word “freedom” louder than any country on earth. They are being replaced ever more quickly by immigrants leaving behind lost hopes and dreams and dreaming anew that the dinosaur here will save them from despair and nothingness. They have no clue it is dying because its skin still looks attractive and superficially glamorous. Ah, Hollywood. Thank you, Madison Avenue. But unless the cures are implemented soon and the rejuvenation process begins quickly, it will be as if another meteor has struck. I have no idea who is going to turn the lights back on, this time.
Postscript
The following thoughts were running through my head, and jotted down on paper next to me, as I wrote the piece above, but I did not include them at the time, for reasons of length. I also thought it might be too many dreary observations for one article. But after sleeping on it, I decided, “Why not?”, so here goes:
The exact moment (unknown) when the cosmic forces of nature chose to pull the plug on the dinosaurs, the meteor collision with earth created a huge cloud of dust and atmospheric debris that encircled the earth. At least that is what most scientists think what happened. The climatological result of this was a cloud cover which effectively blocked out the sun’s rays for an extended period of time, thus creating an extremely long “winter” on earth. Not long thereafter, the plant life died off and the food source for the herbivores died with it. Not long after that, the herbivorves died off, and because there was no McDonald’s or Burger King for T-Rex to stop at, the food source for the carnivores died off, too. Thus endeth the tale of the dinosaurs. Or so I understand it.
A few years back, a small oil-producing country in the middle east, led by a despot and dictator, was reported to have “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMD’s). Because they were supposed to pose a threat to the security of the United States…and because of several other bogus claims made by the brain of our dinosaur… we attacked that country, deposed the dictator, oversaw his execution, and killed (and are still killing) countless civilians while making countless thousands more homeless. We have been engaged in “hostilities” there ever since (“hostilities” sounds bogus, too). And there were no WMD’s. The dictator was not guilty of this charge…..but we only verified that much later. Too late. Dead. Extinct.
Recently, for some newly “revealed” reasons, which may well be bogus as well, we have accused yet another small, middle eastern, oil producing country of aiding and abetting the 911 hijackers, supplying arms and munitions to insurgents in the first country we invaded and just generally being disagreeable. Dino seems to think that any time you cannot pronounce someone’s name, you should wag your spiked tail. There are more than a few rumors of war, as well as verifiable evidence, that the United States, in its best dinosaur clothing, may well soon bomb that country as well. (We seem to want to wag that big, dangerous tail, some more).
Part of the rumors, again partly verifiable, insist that we might use something called “tactical nuclear weapons” to conduct this proposed bombing. Sound interesting? Read on.
Everything that I have been able to read tells me that “Tactical Nuclear Weapons” (TNW’s) are still just nuclear weapons. Tactical or not, they are indeed WMD’s. Once you detonate one, there is not much control over what happens afterwards. It is a hideous fire bomb of an explosion, Hiroshima all over again, and the fallout afterwards is deadly, long lasting and unpredictable. I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like the United Jurassic States of America is about to kill and make homeless another several thousand innocent people. The ailing dinosaur is about to use WMD TNW’s on a country which doesn’t have any verifiable WMD’s at all, after basically destroying a country for having WMD’s it didn’t have in the first place. . Are you following this?
Incidentally, the Vice-Potus of the brain is reported to have recently ordered the covert shipment of WMD TNW’s from North Dakota to Florida, over American dinosaur soil, for imminent shipment, to an “undisclosed location” for use against the country that doesn’t have any WMD’s that we know of. I didn’t know the brain was capable of being either that smart or covert. You learn something new every day. But since they got “found out” (something like “went missing”), does that mean it’s not covert anymore? Or “undisclosed’?
The link to the story above:
The first dinosaurs became extinct because they could not survive an extended, cold, dark, sunless winter. If the great, lumbering dinosaur of the United States chooses to instigate the use of WMD’s in the form of Tactical Nuclear Weapons…a horrid, despicable, cowardly act…. both large and small dinosaurs (China, Israel, Pakistan, India, Russia) around the planet could opt to retailiate and/or join in the fray. These detonation of these weapons will cause the atmosphere to fill with dust and debris and cause a dark, cold nuclear sunless winter. You can figure out the rest of it for yourself. The lights will not come back on for along, long time and you can forget all about all of those suggestions I made earlier about restoring the dinosaur to health. ‘Night, George.
Life goes on in Texas.
The news has announced that on this Fourth, our National Shrub will be speaking to new citizens, being sworn in that day at Monticello: this raises hypocrisy to new levels. At the same time, Dick Cheney will be blustering about pirates ar some such nonsense, from the deck of the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor: another moment in the theater of the absurd. Had Bush and Cheney both stood on and for the real Constitution while they were in office, instead of shredding it, we wouldn't be facing the messes we are . This too, shall pass.
I said some time ago I would wait out the primaries and the general election to see who would win, then plot my course of action from there. I have learned much from McCain and Obama of late: I'm flip-flopping. While I was very relieved when the Democratic primary was over, Hillary threw in the towel and Obama became "presumptive", that relief has now given way to dismay and disillusionment. My enthusiasm for BO has gone from , Oh, Yeah! Right on!", to "Oh, well. If I have no other choice." I started becoming uneasy when he wrote a check from his supporter's donations to help out with the Clinton campaign debt. They have lots of money and they spent like drunken sailors. And he gives THEM a check? Maybe Barack is afraid of Bill. Then, as the press says, Barack's knees got "wobbly"on what to do about Iraq if elected, he has waffled and been decisionless about the FISA bill and possible prosecution, and now he is pandering to the religious right about faith based initiatives. First he seemed to moving to center stage, which is fine: we cold use some of that. But now he seems to be moving much farther to the right of the stage. Most of what I applauded and that I thought he stood for seems to be fading away as he works purely to garner votes and thereby sacrifice principals. As some have suggested, we really should make "character" an issue in this campaign. I feel somewhat betrayed, because Obama, like MCCain, seems to be becoming one rather than having any. I was reminded by two articles this morning, that I should not forget that he is a politician. Oops. My "wait and see" attitude has become more of "wait and worry". Pandering to evangelicals pushes me about as far as I can go without coming completely unglued. Too bad. Alas, poor Obie. I thought I knew him well.
What follows is the latest installment in what happens when my fingers get stuck in the keyboard. One early reviewer denounced it as much too long and my son decried it as much too dreary and pessimistic. Grab a new cup of whatever you are drinking, and read on if you are brave and stalwart:
The United Jurassic States of America
An Allegory (?) in Memory of George Carlin.
When my youngest son was very small, even before he could read well, dinosaurs were his best friends. From his first introduction to these human precursors, he had a strong kinship with them. We bought and read books about them, he looked at the pictures, drew pictures of them and built skeletal models. If we could get to a museum, to see an assembled fossil, we went, and any even remotely relevant television program was a must see. He (we) marveled at them, fantasized about them and made up a terrible and unending strings of “saurus” jokes all the time.: “My triceratops yours”; “Move your big bronto butt over so I can sit down”; “you must have a brain the size of a walnut”, “Clean up your room. What are you, mesosaurus wrecks?”etc. And if Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble had lived next door, Nick would not have given them a second thought.
But certain aspects of being “dino-aware” demanded awe and respect. There was never any denying the impressiveness of the really big ones, like the brontosaurus: it towered over everything; you had to pay homage to the king, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and marvel at his teeth and his speed. The warriors of this society commanded attention as well, the varied ancestors of the rhinoceros, with their heavy plating and horns, and tails lined and rowed with deadly spikes. And some were even reported to fly (dactyls ?). Some were the first stealth predators (remember Jurassic Park?), the dreaded raptors (we have fighter planes named for them, today) and some were merely content to loll about, eating greenery. They were the first vegans, I guess.
But carnivore, herbivore or omnivore, on land, in the water or in the sky, they made their mark on the face of the earth for millions of years and later re-appeared in stone and imprint to captivate the minds and imaginations today of scientists, anthropologists and young children like my son. But they went extinct. Oops.
The reason for recalling such memories and the many images of these early creatures was that I was busy looking for a symbol, a metaphor or a suitable collection of word pictures to use to describe the United States of America, today. It, too, has many forms and descriptions, has many aspects and behaves in many different ways, on and in the land, the water and the sky. It is leaving its mark and its impressions on the face of the earth, as well. It is attracting attention and captivating the minds of scholars, politicos, historians, the general populations of the world, and, for now, at least, contemporary cultural anthropologists. Some day, if we manage to do our worst, the children and grandchildren of these curious groups may well be the kind of anthropologists that sift through the remains, skeletons and remnants of what once was here, in an attempt to figure out what we (The United States of America) once was. They will, some days hence, be looking to discover what we did, what we stood for, stood against and what we did about it. They will examine our (possibly charred) fossilized remains, look at our WMD’s, rifle through our vast accumulated waste and search for the answer to the question of why we (the US of A) went extinct (this is a lot like the phrase “went missing”, used in today’s inaccurate vernacular, but far more serious. You can sometimes be found and recover from being missing. Being extinct is far more permanent. Ask a dodo).
Put rather simply, the United States of America was born somewhat abruptly.If you look at the short span of space and time of human existence, the US emerged almost over night. In the grand scheme of events, from the first thirteen oppressed colonies, it appeared as a nearly full-grown bird of freedom almost instantaneously. The mark left behind by its birth changed the face of the world. The Founding Fathers were propelled by their indignance and resentments, their zeal and their collective intellect, to say, “Enough. No More. George, go home! And stay there!”. Supported by the keen desire for liberty and the compounded robust and restless ire of the people, and motivated by the then radical notion that “all men are created equal”, the great bird took to the sky and vanquished the oppressor. The revolution dawned a new day. Funny, that today, many are again saying, “George, go home. Stay there”. Déjà vu.
Wow! What a great story! An epic adventure in humanity! A monumental triumph! What an inspiration!
However, 200 hundred years have passed and that revolution has faded. Some say we have been asleep, off duty, unaware. It has given way to a reverse evolution, a de-volution. The great symbol of liberty, freedom, success and equality evolved backwards from an eagle to a dinosaur. Almost imperceptibly to some, time began running rearwards and the behemoth, lumbering beast of the Jurassic past came back to life. This “saurus”, however, is not so loveable or loved.
Unlike the extinction of the first dinosaurs, which occurred when Mother Nature and the universe arbitrarily decided to pummel the earth with a giant asteroid (if you subscribe to that theory: my son and I do). This event caused enough cold and darkness for long enough to starve out every living thing (almost) and life nearly had to start from scratch. Life as a dinosaur was mostly fun until that happened. The end of their existence was not their fault. They never saw it coming or had a clue. Suddenly, someone had to ask, “Who turned out the lights?”, and “Where did my lunch go?”
Note: If you are a believer in or practitioner of Intelligent Design, this would be a good time to stop reading .If you have any visions of an early George W. Bush, riding a saddled dinosaur around the early Texas range, rounding up prehistoric cattle or chickens for dinner, you will not find any comfort or solace in this piece, from this point forward. It just gets to be more like real biology and Darwin. Sorry.
This was a sad and unfortunate, non-storybook ending for the Jurassic Park inhabitants, but it need not hold true for this modern day dinosaur called the United States of America. At the moment, there is no one, giant asteroid on the galactic horizon, that we know of. But our dinosaur has some internal tumors and ulcerations that require immediate attention. There are also some outside extremists and agitators, a few meddling boneheads and the usual assortment of idolaters and misguided icon worshippers (bureaucrats) lurking about, but there always have been. If we are lucky, they usually die from a lack of attention as the health of the afflicted beast improves. Despite the last nearly eight years, we still have some available medications that will help: common sense, rules of law, a Constitution and some remaining shreds of democracy. And therapists are standing by to take your call, should you want to join in the cause: philosophers, historians, educators, scholars, ethicists, and an educated public. Many of us truly believe that most of the smaller, current and short-sighted habits of this beast are fixable with time. But the bigger public behavior problems, the eating habits and the extremely impaired vision problems of this creature are going to be hard to tackle. And they certainly cannot be addressed all at once. That would require major surgery, aka, another revolution, and it doesn’t seem like America is quite ready for that. At least not just yet. Besides, you don’t just “move” something this big, overnight.
Working from the inside, out.
Our big, lumbering mammal’s organs are all sick. Any physician worth his mettle will tell you that nothing that manifests itself on the outside of a sick being will be pleasant, as long as the insides are not well. All thinking and behavior is adversely affected by the illnesses within. So we go first to the brain of old saurus, which, like those of all dinos, is quite small, limited in capacity and able to deliberate only very slowly. The poor thing suffers from believing that it is an all-powerful “megasaurus” and doesn’t even know that it processes information at only a snail’s pace, and its little brain has become almost completely ineffective, when it comes to problem solving. Its arteries (the halls and offices of congress and the federal agencies) are clogged with inept elected officials (aka, dolts), incompetent political appointees (FEMA) and lobbyists (robber barons). It is almost pure administrative cholesterol. Blood thinners and anti-coagulants in the form of more open, less expensive and more aggressive elections would help all that. But something needs to be done soon. And don’t call in the drug companies to help; it will cost too much , take too long to test and evaluate, be subject to approval by the same government that needs the treatment (it is in denial) and will no doubt have bad side effects. If you leave it up to this “brain”, the cure will never get to market. There is too much money at stake. To remove the lobbyists alone, you would need to flood K Street with something which is a total disincentive for personal gain. There are some remedies on the market which can help. These include virulent doses of humility, a ban on limo services, no free lunches (or vacations in Ecuador or Paraguay) and certifications that the participants are both germ and slime free. And a general tax on greed. All tough to pull off, but doable if these clowns are all subject to evaluation by a new and sanitized EPA. We have the technology; we just have to use it. It is all outlined in a book called “Ethics”. I know we have a copy, somewhere.
A small but especially troublesome (and troubled) corner of the brain is called the Executive Branch. Both its’ East and West wings appear broken and it hasn’t flown for some time. Before it flounders around on the floor any more, or leaves behind more remnants of misguided loyalty feathers, the whole area should be scrubbed, flushed out and sanitized. This is particularly true for the chairs of the POTUS and Vice-POTUS: these held the resident WMD’s. The entire branch should be made ready for new blood, fresh air and less accumulated fecal matter. Weapons, bald-faced lies, self-delusion and cowboy arrogance should be eliminated completely. Clear out all the brush.
Once this is done, there will be less chance that the Judiciary enclave, or the mysterious “mental rule book and cloakroom” of the brain, will tip any further to the right. Although small, this component of the brain has the ability to bring the whole beast crashing to the ground if it gets any more lopsided. And if dino goes down completely, well, there’s that extinction thing again. “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” will echo around the world.
Somewhere, buried under all of this mess in this troubled brain, is an item labeled, “The Constitution of These United States.” When we find it again, (it has been under wraps for about seven years), we should be very careful not to lose it again, spill anything on it, blur it or alter it in anyway. THIS IS THE COLLECTION OF CAREFULLY CRAFTED DEMOCRATIC THREADS, PROVIDED BY THE FOUNDING FATHERS, IN WHICH THE FUTURE BALANCE HANGS. ITS’ CONTENTS ARE THE BEST AND FINAL DEFENSE AGAINST EXTINCTION.
Other Vital Organs
By all reports, and according to some recent medical prognostications, the heart of the dinosaur is still beating. But within the last 100 years, it has done itself no favors, health-wise. For openers, it has become the worst of all possible omnivores. It can’t think very well, but it sure can eat. It devours everything in sight: natural resources, clean air and its sources, huge quantities of oil, human energy and civil liberties. The seemingly unending desire to consume the elements of the high life, private airplanes, most of the world’s food stuffs and energy, expensive automobiles and prime real estate has pushed the liver to its limits and starved the stomach for nutrients. The military industrial complex drives even more consumption and the imbalance of sustainable trade is leaving the body muscles weak. The muscles, the tendons, the plasma, the electrolytes and whatever else it takes to keep this dinosaur upright and moving consist of the people who live inside the beast, the populace. They strive to convert whatever raw energy is left, after the military and the corporations and the diplomats are done, into useful products, capital and the replenishment of sustainable resources. It takes more and more effort every day for the dinosaur to just walk, and it has grown obese, cannot turn and adjust quickly and relies mostly on fond memories of when it used to be lithe, slim and attracted the fond attention of the rest of the world. Those days appear to be gone, forever. And the muscle and the tendons and sinew and the bloodstream cannot live on bread and water forever. If you just keep gorging the liver on an empty stomach and clogging the arteries, you are asking for a heart attack. I doubt there is a single defibulator big enough to jump-start this once athletic behemoth.
There are other complications involved if we take dino into rehab. Lately, because he was told there isn’t enough oil, he has taken to drinking large quantities of ethanol. Everybody else in the world saloon may be doing it too, but it is bad for the liver, causes an equally expensive drunk and puts a crimp in the corn supply/food chain. Along with the ethanol, dino has swallowed the story that there isn’t enough oil, that “peak” oil is here and that we have to go drilling in places we shouldn’t to get more. It’s too cold for dinosaurs in the ANWR, and dinos can’t really swim, so the coastal shelf is out, too. Those K Street lobbyists in that brain that needs flushing have clogged up some more arteries with big oil money; the drunken dinosaur has been convinced he needs a new, different and more expensive fix. He is wobbling down the street, gazing lustfully at nuclear reactors, and has also just discovered he is not the only creature in the neighborhood. It seems there is another dinosaur waking up in China and one in India. They are also both omnivores and both like oil. China’s dinosaur is healthier, has more muscle to flex and more money to throw around. Sadly, most of that money came from OUR dinosaur in the first place. What goes around comes back to Chinese banks.
As the dino wobbles, he is inhaling lots of toxic fumes, because the brain has been ignoring the warnings of the EPA and the Al Gore influences for a long time. The dinosaur has a smoking habit, refuses to try nicotine gum and this entire foul intake is making all the people and the planet sick. American Dino and his Chinese soulmate are exhaling CO2 at a great rate. But the brain likes smoke filled rooms, so no one is paying attention. And the big energy boys from K Street are in there, puffing away.
The rest of the problem
Bringing the dinosaur back to good health is one mighty and noble goal. If that can be achieved, the next round of challenges have to do with what to do about how the beast has interacted with the rest of the planetary neighborhood. The dinosaur has very large feet, poor vision, a large dangerous spiked tail, bad spawning habits and a real knack for alienating other dinosaurs and people in general.
In wobbling around, the big feet have stepped on many people, countries and governments that didn’t invite the intrusions. Civil rights and liberties have been abused, wealth misappropriated, resources plundered and entire cultures mauled. In the wake of the beast’s wandering, the tail has lashed back and forth behind it, often leaving death and destruction, havoc and despair. And the wandering path has been global. Please remember that this dinosaur does not bear young: it only lays eggs. And most of the eggs it has laid have gone rotten. Very few have hatched new freedoms or great birds of liberty like ours once was. While having no inkling of some of the devastation left in its wake, our dinosaur is also not popular around the world. Perhaps most sadly, the fact is that the dinosaur’s own vision of itself is so weak and inaccurate, that it has no clue how poorly he (it) is perceived on the world stage. By the way, this “selective perception” also allows dino to ignore misery in its own back yard. This is another vision problem. Look in Wikipedia under “Katrina”. In addition to the fixes and cures mentioned earlier, dino could use a good optometrist.
In the last of what has been nearly a decade, this “brain’s ” behavior has been particularly disruptive in this regard. Its vocabulary (“speechifyin”) and social skills (unsolicited back rubs) from the executive branch, have been below par and disgusting. Both the executive and legislative branches have co-opted and abused the MSM to the point where no outlay of information is credible or to be trusted. The “brain” is convinced it can tell the American people anything, and they will accept it as gospel, “good news”.
But the good news is increasingly the bad news. The rich get richer and the poor get even less than they used to. And the middle class is vanishing into the bowels of a dinosaur totally unaware of their role in the possibilities of survival and the avoidance of extinction. What’s that you say, “SO?” Thank you, Dick.
Expats leave every day, in mourning of the imminent passing of an old friend. They leave a country that once trumpeted the word “freedom” louder than any country on earth. They are being replaced ever more quickly by immigrants leaving behind lost hopes and dreams and dreaming anew that the dinosaur here will save them from despair and nothingness. They have no clue it is dying because its skin still looks attractive and superficially glamorous. Ah, Hollywood. Thank you, Madison Avenue. But unless the cures are implemented soon and the rejuvenation process begins quickly, it will be as if another meteor has struck. I have no idea who is going to turn the lights back on, this time.
Postscript
The following thoughts were running through my head, and jotted down on paper next to me, as I wrote the piece above, but I did not include them at the time, for reasons of length. I also thought it might be too many dreary observations for one article. But after sleeping on it, I decided, “Why not?”, so here goes:
The exact moment (unknown) when the cosmic forces of nature chose to pull the plug on the dinosaurs, the meteor collision with earth created a huge cloud of dust and atmospheric debris that encircled the earth. At least that is what most scientists think what happened. The climatological result of this was a cloud cover which effectively blocked out the sun’s rays for an extended period of time, thus creating an extremely long “winter” on earth. Not long thereafter, the plant life died off and the food source for the herbivores died with it. Not long after that, the herbivorves died off, and because there was no McDonald’s or Burger King for T-Rex to stop at, the food source for the carnivores died off, too. Thus endeth the tale of the dinosaurs. Or so I understand it.
A few years back, a small oil-producing country in the middle east, led by a despot and dictator, was reported to have “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMD’s). Because they were supposed to pose a threat to the security of the United States…and because of several other bogus claims made by the brain of our dinosaur… we attacked that country, deposed the dictator, oversaw his execution, and killed (and are still killing) countless civilians while making countless thousands more homeless. We have been engaged in “hostilities” there ever since (“hostilities” sounds bogus, too). And there were no WMD’s. The dictator was not guilty of this charge…..but we only verified that much later. Too late. Dead. Extinct.
Recently, for some newly “revealed” reasons, which may well be bogus as well, we have accused yet another small, middle eastern, oil producing country of aiding and abetting the 911 hijackers, supplying arms and munitions to insurgents in the first country we invaded and just generally being disagreeable. Dino seems to think that any time you cannot pronounce someone’s name, you should wag your spiked tail. There are more than a few rumors of war, as well as verifiable evidence, that the United States, in its best dinosaur clothing, may well soon bomb that country as well. (We seem to want to wag that big, dangerous tail, some more).
Part of the rumors, again partly verifiable, insist that we might use something called “tactical nuclear weapons” to conduct this proposed bombing. Sound interesting? Read on.
Everything that I have been able to read tells me that “Tactical Nuclear Weapons” (TNW’s) are still just nuclear weapons. Tactical or not, they are indeed WMD’s. Once you detonate one, there is not much control over what happens afterwards. It is a hideous fire bomb of an explosion, Hiroshima all over again, and the fallout afterwards is deadly, long lasting and unpredictable. I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like the United Jurassic States of America is about to kill and make homeless another several thousand innocent people. The ailing dinosaur is about to use WMD TNW’s on a country which doesn’t have any verifiable WMD’s at all, after basically destroying a country for having WMD’s it didn’t have in the first place. . Are you following this?
Incidentally, the Vice-Potus of the brain is reported to have recently ordered the covert shipment of WMD TNW’s from North Dakota to Florida, over American dinosaur soil, for imminent shipment, to an “undisclosed location” for use against the country that doesn’t have any WMD’s that we know of. I didn’t know the brain was capable of being either that smart or covert. You learn something new every day. But since they got “found out” (something like “went missing”), does that mean it’s not covert anymore? Or “undisclosed’?
The link to the story above:
The first dinosaurs became extinct because they could not survive an extended, cold, dark, sunless winter. If the great, lumbering dinosaur of the United States chooses to instigate the use of WMD’s in the form of Tactical Nuclear Weapons…a horrid, despicable, cowardly act…. both large and small dinosaurs (China, Israel, Pakistan, India, Russia) around the planet could opt to retailiate and/or join in the fray. These detonation of these weapons will cause the atmosphere to fill with dust and debris and cause a dark, cold nuclear sunless winter. You can figure out the rest of it for yourself. The lights will not come back on for along, long time and you can forget all about all of those suggestions I made earlier about restoring the dinosaur to health. ‘Night, George.
Life goes on in Texas.
Monday, June 23, 2008
The Day the Music Died
I have been told that when I manage to keep some humor in what gets posted here, everybody enjoys it more. I'll try, but George Carlin died last night and that really sucks. I've been walking around all day, reciting the seven words you can't say on TV. I must not have been doing it in the right places, because I didn't get arrested. Nuts. He was what I sometimes called "contemptuously honorable". He was a rascal who told the truth, no matter how ugly, and blasted everyone who deserved it when they were being undeniable idiots. He was reprehensible in a totally acceptable manner. Outrageous and with lots more guts than most of us. He did a one-man HBO special not long ago. Some of his best work, I think. Catch it if you can. I would expect HBO to schedule re-runs in his honor. Have your VCR ready.
Coming right on the heels of the passing of Tim Russert, this was not good news and no way to start a week. I've read a ton of stuff in praise of Russert in the past few days, and the public tribute done in DC was very tasteful and touching and reverent. Tim would have liked all the laughter at his memorial service. It would have suited him. And I forgave him for being Catholic long ago. On the other hand, I read some articles today, labeling him as just one of the MSM sell-out crowd in the Washington media. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I don' t think, as some do, that he was complicit in the bullshit that got us into Iraq, but there's always at least two ways to look at everything. I'll prefer to keep my memories of the funny, smart, fat Irish guy from Buffalo. If more people would "Go get 'em", as he advocated every week, we wouldn't be in some of the messes we are in.
I just submitted this for publication. We'll see if it flies:
Notice: Marriage Counselor Needed!
Despite repeated efforts and pleadings by Dividedwefail.org , among others, and the infrequent conciliatory gestures made by the moderates of both political parties, the widely advertised (and routinely hyped) marriage of the two sides of our government appears to be on the rocks. And the children are suffering for it. Beneath the expensive haircuts and the proper coifs, inside the carefully tailored suits (or pants suits) and beyond the appearances of sincerity, grace and feigned compassion, there is bitterness, bickering and some ideological adultery going on. And it can be nasty. Some one has even gone so far as to say that Obama is black and that McCain is old. It gets worse.
Everyone knows that politics in America is identified as left and right, labeled blue and red, named Democrat or Republican. And everyone knows that the respective members of these parties don’t care much for one another (sometimes, tradition sucks). And we also know that they don’t particularly like it when one or the other has either the final say-so about current affairs. More especially, the competition heats up when one side has more money than the other. Power, and the ability to use it to walk away the victor, is the only desired result. Should a few lives or futures or ethics be lost along the way, there is no cause for alarm. This marriage of convenience seems to stay in place as long as everyone gets a paycheck and gets enough vacation time. But stay out of the kitchen.
Apparently, though the good of the country be damned, this “my side vs. your side” hostility has come to overshadow the reason(s) this government was originally established. I think the founding Fathers would be appalled. This country was supposed to move forward and set an example for the world. Instead we seem to have a perpetual prelude to divorce court. There is no forward motion, there is only paralysis. I can’t think of one decision, on any issue, that this country has made of late that any other country would aspire or look up to. Shall we talk about Gitmo and habeus corpus? And which side won that one? Oops.
What has finally become important today is that one faction WINS. It seems that either one partner or the other must be made to skulk away in shame and defeat. It matters not any more if the victor(s) will eventually do anything of merit for the populace or their constituents, it only matters that one side or the other comes out on top and, in the view of the public and their colleagues, soundly trounces the other. This may be in matters of the economy, the social well-being, military decisions and exertion of might or virtually anything else that requires legislation for the distribution of pork.
No one in any elected capacity seems to be truly representative of the people who helped them rise to where they are. Being of one ilk or the other, and being the winner, is far more important than anything else. If you follow the tone of the feud between Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann, you might get the picture. But this is not supposed to be about ratings and rantings: it’s supposed to be about the welfare of the country. And this incessant squabbling is ruining everything. .
While the two spouses argue in the kitchen, throwing heated polemics at one other like dishes, shouting examples of all types if misanthropic infidelities (probably true more often than not) and throwing around blame, several other events are taking place: Rome burns, the unregulated price of oil increases geometrically, the public infrastructure crumbles, levees break and rivers flood. All the while, almost every lawmaker in the establishment runs amuck of the very laws they have sworn to protect and obey. It is all charlatanism brought to a new and disheartening low. As if lying under oath, the marriage vows have been forsaken. This is not for better; this is for worse.
The level, the severity or the depth of the assorted crimes and dalliances doesn’t seem to matter much. You can be involved in money laundering, bribery, high-end prostitution, banking fraud, outright lying or legislative corruption at the highest levels. The important thing is that you make sure that everyone knows that you are either a Republican or a Democrat, that you are RIGHT, you are better than those other guys and have more power and influence to keep doing what you have always been doing when it is all over. Whatever you did (or didn’t do) was almost certainly “proper”, and if that other guy did it, it was most certainly wrong and heinous. It helps to have your spouse standing by your side when you (almost) confess, but not mandatory. Dubya seems to get by standing alone, without the frail supporting role of Laura, just fine. Maybe she is smarter than we think she is. But then, at least by his accounts, he is never guilty of anything, anyway.
However, just when I think this acrimony will peak and cause a divorce of such dire consequences that someone may start to see the forest for the trees of that Washington beltway obfuscation, there come momentary lulls. There comes some temporary romance and a kind of lurid metaphorical sexual encounter takes place which clearly, but only temporarily, forestall any beneficial resolution or useful definition. At least for a short time, the need for arbitration (a marriage counselor) will seem to be alleviated and there exists a sort of calm amidst the ongoing storm.
Specifically, let’s look at Pelosi and Co. and how they adroitly made the public bend over and accept the new FISA legislation. Here was a wonderful opportunity to do something progressive, correct, honorable and morally responsible. Instead, there was only cheap, convenient, legislative back-room sex. At the crucial point in the deliberations, the left-right war ceased to exist. Expediency and the ease of in and out without too much fuss was far more important than the long-term good and the will of the people. Shortly thereafter, however, the pots and pans started flying again. Freedom stopped ringing.
Let’s not forget, of course, that somewhat like a meddling sister-in-law, the MSM has had a nourishing role in all of this, choosing what to report (scandal, gaffes, lapel pin usage) and what not to ( articles of impeachment, obvious pilfering of the national coffers by lobbyists and Cheney/Halliburton, obvious side-stepping of the law by Presidential legal eagles), and even allowing the occasion of the passing of a well known political commentator to be the stage for both red and blue actors to parade upon.…Alas, poor Timmy, we knew him well….and the actors all play before the cameras so well, perfectly humble, perfectly choreographed.
All of this is to say, finally that I don’t have much hope for any sort of reconciliation between the two sides any time soon, and certainly not helped along by either of the two proposed “counselors” in the wings. Obama and McCain are both products of this war-ravaged environment and neither will be able to muster the calm, persistent vision or the evenness of temperament and persuasion adequate to resolve the dispute amicably and positively. Neither will be able to coordinate a reasonable divorce settlement that will allow the two sides to live side by side in any kind of productive peace. It is the American-ized version of the Arab-Israeli dispute and Washington is the New Jerusalem.
Sadly, although Obama may have the insight, the zeal and the rhetorical skills, he has no punch and will simply get hit by the dishes flying in the kitchen. He will come away bruised and battered. He will most certainly get steamrolled. He is ill-equipped to moderate between these two seasoned sparring partners. McCain has some punch, but most of it hits below the belt and has no lasting effect that will enable the two sides to productively grow old together. And, the truth be told, steamrollers and guided missiles are more his style. Hardly reconciliatory devices with any mediating value.
As the old sign out on the shop floor grimly reminds the laborers: “The floggings (of us) will continue until (our) Morale improves”. That continual droning sound you hear is of the one spouse, out on the Senate floor, complaining that the other came in drunk too late last night and left dirty dishes in the sink. And unfortunately, it seems the kids are asleep and have no clue what’s going on in the kitchen.
Our leaders seem always to want to be Right, and seldom are, and we just get what’s Left. I’d suggest we call a lawyer, but the damn place is already full of them.
Life goes on in Texas.
Coming right on the heels of the passing of Tim Russert, this was not good news and no way to start a week. I've read a ton of stuff in praise of Russert in the past few days, and the public tribute done in DC was very tasteful and touching and reverent. Tim would have liked all the laughter at his memorial service. It would have suited him. And I forgave him for being Catholic long ago. On the other hand, I read some articles today, labeling him as just one of the MSM sell-out crowd in the Washington media. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I don' t think, as some do, that he was complicit in the bullshit that got us into Iraq, but there's always at least two ways to look at everything. I'll prefer to keep my memories of the funny, smart, fat Irish guy from Buffalo. If more people would "Go get 'em", as he advocated every week, we wouldn't be in some of the messes we are in.
I just submitted this for publication. We'll see if it flies:
Notice: Marriage Counselor Needed!
Despite repeated efforts and pleadings by Dividedwefail.org , among others, and the infrequent conciliatory gestures made by the moderates of both political parties, the widely advertised (and routinely hyped) marriage of the two sides of our government appears to be on the rocks. And the children are suffering for it. Beneath the expensive haircuts and the proper coifs, inside the carefully tailored suits (or pants suits) and beyond the appearances of sincerity, grace and feigned compassion, there is bitterness, bickering and some ideological adultery going on. And it can be nasty. Some one has even gone so far as to say that Obama is black and that McCain is old. It gets worse.
Everyone knows that politics in America is identified as left and right, labeled blue and red, named Democrat or Republican. And everyone knows that the respective members of these parties don’t care much for one another (sometimes, tradition sucks). And we also know that they don’t particularly like it when one or the other has either the final say-so about current affairs. More especially, the competition heats up when one side has more money than the other. Power, and the ability to use it to walk away the victor, is the only desired result. Should a few lives or futures or ethics be lost along the way, there is no cause for alarm. This marriage of convenience seems to stay in place as long as everyone gets a paycheck and gets enough vacation time. But stay out of the kitchen.
Apparently, though the good of the country be damned, this “my side vs. your side” hostility has come to overshadow the reason(s) this government was originally established. I think the founding Fathers would be appalled. This country was supposed to move forward and set an example for the world. Instead we seem to have a perpetual prelude to divorce court. There is no forward motion, there is only paralysis. I can’t think of one decision, on any issue, that this country has made of late that any other country would aspire or look up to. Shall we talk about Gitmo and habeus corpus? And which side won that one? Oops.
What has finally become important today is that one faction WINS. It seems that either one partner or the other must be made to skulk away in shame and defeat. It matters not any more if the victor(s) will eventually do anything of merit for the populace or their constituents, it only matters that one side or the other comes out on top and, in the view of the public and their colleagues, soundly trounces the other. This may be in matters of the economy, the social well-being, military decisions and exertion of might or virtually anything else that requires legislation for the distribution of pork.
No one in any elected capacity seems to be truly representative of the people who helped them rise to where they are. Being of one ilk or the other, and being the winner, is far more important than anything else. If you follow the tone of the feud between Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann, you might get the picture. But this is not supposed to be about ratings and rantings: it’s supposed to be about the welfare of the country. And this incessant squabbling is ruining everything. .
While the two spouses argue in the kitchen, throwing heated polemics at one other like dishes, shouting examples of all types if misanthropic infidelities (probably true more often than not) and throwing around blame, several other events are taking place: Rome burns, the unregulated price of oil increases geometrically, the public infrastructure crumbles, levees break and rivers flood. All the while, almost every lawmaker in the establishment runs amuck of the very laws they have sworn to protect and obey. It is all charlatanism brought to a new and disheartening low. As if lying under oath, the marriage vows have been forsaken. This is not for better; this is for worse.
The level, the severity or the depth of the assorted crimes and dalliances doesn’t seem to matter much. You can be involved in money laundering, bribery, high-end prostitution, banking fraud, outright lying or legislative corruption at the highest levels. The important thing is that you make sure that everyone knows that you are either a Republican or a Democrat, that you are RIGHT, you are better than those other guys and have more power and influence to keep doing what you have always been doing when it is all over. Whatever you did (or didn’t do) was almost certainly “proper”, and if that other guy did it, it was most certainly wrong and heinous. It helps to have your spouse standing by your side when you (almost) confess, but not mandatory. Dubya seems to get by standing alone, without the frail supporting role of Laura, just fine. Maybe she is smarter than we think she is. But then, at least by his accounts, he is never guilty of anything, anyway.
However, just when I think this acrimony will peak and cause a divorce of such dire consequences that someone may start to see the forest for the trees of that Washington beltway obfuscation, there come momentary lulls. There comes some temporary romance and a kind of lurid metaphorical sexual encounter takes place which clearly, but only temporarily, forestall any beneficial resolution or useful definition. At least for a short time, the need for arbitration (a marriage counselor) will seem to be alleviated and there exists a sort of calm amidst the ongoing storm.
Specifically, let’s look at Pelosi and Co. and how they adroitly made the public bend over and accept the new FISA legislation. Here was a wonderful opportunity to do something progressive, correct, honorable and morally responsible. Instead, there was only cheap, convenient, legislative back-room sex. At the crucial point in the deliberations, the left-right war ceased to exist. Expediency and the ease of in and out without too much fuss was far more important than the long-term good and the will of the people. Shortly thereafter, however, the pots and pans started flying again. Freedom stopped ringing.
Let’s not forget, of course, that somewhat like a meddling sister-in-law, the MSM has had a nourishing role in all of this, choosing what to report (scandal, gaffes, lapel pin usage) and what not to ( articles of impeachment, obvious pilfering of the national coffers by lobbyists and Cheney/Halliburton, obvious side-stepping of the law by Presidential legal eagles), and even allowing the occasion of the passing of a well known political commentator to be the stage for both red and blue actors to parade upon.…Alas, poor Timmy, we knew him well….and the actors all play before the cameras so well, perfectly humble, perfectly choreographed.
All of this is to say, finally that I don’t have much hope for any sort of reconciliation between the two sides any time soon, and certainly not helped along by either of the two proposed “counselors” in the wings. Obama and McCain are both products of this war-ravaged environment and neither will be able to muster the calm, persistent vision or the evenness of temperament and persuasion adequate to resolve the dispute amicably and positively. Neither will be able to coordinate a reasonable divorce settlement that will allow the two sides to live side by side in any kind of productive peace. It is the American-ized version of the Arab-Israeli dispute and Washington is the New Jerusalem.
Sadly, although Obama may have the insight, the zeal and the rhetorical skills, he has no punch and will simply get hit by the dishes flying in the kitchen. He will come away bruised and battered. He will most certainly get steamrolled. He is ill-equipped to moderate between these two seasoned sparring partners. McCain has some punch, but most of it hits below the belt and has no lasting effect that will enable the two sides to productively grow old together. And, the truth be told, steamrollers and guided missiles are more his style. Hardly reconciliatory devices with any mediating value.
As the old sign out on the shop floor grimly reminds the laborers: “The floggings (of us) will continue until (our) Morale improves”. That continual droning sound you hear is of the one spouse, out on the Senate floor, complaining that the other came in drunk too late last night and left dirty dishes in the sink. And unfortunately, it seems the kids are asleep and have no clue what’s going on in the kitchen.
Our leaders seem always to want to be Right, and seldom are, and we just get what’s Left. I’d suggest we call a lawyer, but the damn place is already full of them.
Life goes on in Texas.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Still here...I think
Post surgery better than I expected. But I've got another month before anything else happens that will let me get close to chewing steak again. And the costs! Ouch! They hurt worse than the surgery!
I wish I was Tiger Woods. Just had one of the greatest wins in the game and can now decide to take the rest of the season off because of his knee. I have two knees and neither one gets me out of work.
The world is encircled by big, black lines of doom and ominous potential threats. If I read everything I can and believe even half of it, it's depressing. Some say Houston will explode on July 4, some say Chicago or Portland. Some guy named Sinclair is at the NPC today, spewing some kind of filth about Obama. Hot air is billowing forth from Washington about just about everything and we lost Tim Russert last week. That wasn't fair. I guess even God and Stradivarius make mistakes.
If you don't read OPEdNews.com, at least once in awhile, you're missing the greatist populist show on the net. If it's there, it's either true and scarey or a reminder that you are not completely nuts, after all. I tried to post this, today:
The Government really believes we are stupid!
And we let them think it!
I am just now reading and watching the news, as the President and McCain both call for a lifting of the ban on off-shore oil drilling around the US. Why do we keep listening to and falling for this hypocrisy? And how can these people be so ridiculously uninformed?
From all that I can find to read, the oil companies already have leases on land with oil reserves that they have decided not to drill on, yet. They don’t need to go offshore for more drilling opportunities. Following that is the fact that the existing refineries are at capacity and cannot produce any more gas or diesel right now, anyway. Then there are the numerous reports that the available tanks for oil storage are already full to capacity and there is no place to put more crude, even if we could pump it or bring it in from the Saudis. The last ingredient in this misinformation stew is that any new oil will be years away from being refined and made available as fuel to the public anyway.
In short, all of this ridiculous talk about opening up off shore sites or drilling in the ANWAR will do NOTHING to reduce the cost of gasoline and all of this talk by our assorted office holders basically means nothing!
From the president on down, “they” really think we are gullible and stupid, and we let them get away with it every day. I don’t know about you, but I’m downright insulted!
Enough of that. Some days (but not always) the louder we yell, the quieter it beomes. The harder the wind blows, the less we seem to feel it. While I'm tempted to say that it is all water over the dam, I don't think the folks in Iowa and along the Mighty MO would find that funny, right now.
It was 104 here yesterday and all of my herbs are dying. While middle America washes away, we have a drought. Where is the logic in all this? Oh, yes, I remember: Al Gore. This is all just an inconvenience. If you believe that, I have a bridge in down-state Illinois to sell you.
Mostly I'm just hungry. Teeth! I want more teeth! Get that soup away from me!
Life goes on in Texas.
I wish I was Tiger Woods. Just had one of the greatest wins in the game and can now decide to take the rest of the season off because of his knee. I have two knees and neither one gets me out of work.
The world is encircled by big, black lines of doom and ominous potential threats. If I read everything I can and believe even half of it, it's depressing. Some say Houston will explode on July 4, some say Chicago or Portland. Some guy named Sinclair is at the NPC today, spewing some kind of filth about Obama. Hot air is billowing forth from Washington about just about everything and we lost Tim Russert last week. That wasn't fair. I guess even God and Stradivarius make mistakes.
If you don't read OPEdNews.com, at least once in awhile, you're missing the greatist populist show on the net. If it's there, it's either true and scarey or a reminder that you are not completely nuts, after all. I tried to post this, today:
The Government really believes we are stupid!
And we let them think it!
I am just now reading and watching the news, as the President and McCain both call for a lifting of the ban on off-shore oil drilling around the US. Why do we keep listening to and falling for this hypocrisy? And how can these people be so ridiculously uninformed?
From all that I can find to read, the oil companies already have leases on land with oil reserves that they have decided not to drill on, yet. They don’t need to go offshore for more drilling opportunities. Following that is the fact that the existing refineries are at capacity and cannot produce any more gas or diesel right now, anyway. Then there are the numerous reports that the available tanks for oil storage are already full to capacity and there is no place to put more crude, even if we could pump it or bring it in from the Saudis. The last ingredient in this misinformation stew is that any new oil will be years away from being refined and made available as fuel to the public anyway.
In short, all of this ridiculous talk about opening up off shore sites or drilling in the ANWAR will do NOTHING to reduce the cost of gasoline and all of this talk by our assorted office holders basically means nothing!
From the president on down, “they” really think we are gullible and stupid, and we let them get away with it every day. I don’t know about you, but I’m downright insulted!
Enough of that. Some days (but not always) the louder we yell, the quieter it beomes. The harder the wind blows, the less we seem to feel it. While I'm tempted to say that it is all water over the dam, I don't think the folks in Iowa and along the Mighty MO would find that funny, right now.
It was 104 here yesterday and all of my herbs are dying. While middle America washes away, we have a drought. Where is the logic in all this? Oh, yes, I remember: Al Gore. This is all just an inconvenience. If you believe that, I have a bridge in down-state Illinois to sell you.
Mostly I'm just hungry. Teeth! I want more teeth! Get that soup away from me!
Life goes on in Texas.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Before I go under the knife
I started out to say: I was hopelessly confused about the current hodge-podge of mis-guided opinions, mud-slinging and conclusion-jumping, frantically going on in American politics...but it's not hopeless. Many of the people involved, some of the commentators and many, many of the pundits maybe hopeless, but not the whole situation. Before the big oral surgery event occurs on Friday, I just want to say that I've made up my mind who to vote for, what to do in the meantime (will November NEVER get here? Good grief!)and what course of action I will take as soon as I hear the results of the election. Now, where's the anesthesia?
While I was convinced that hysterics, jumping to conclusions, making dark, horrid assination inferences and endless political pandering language would rule the day, I've decided it needn't be that way. I know these things: I can't bear to see Hillary's strained face or hear her failing, tired voice on TV anymore: I just won't watch. Obama I can take in small and medium doses but it is clear that staying on the positive side of any real issues is tough, when so much of the opposition rhetoric calls for reactionary speech and defensive posturing. I get his message, now let's move on. Too much of a good thing, and all that.
McCain is the part which is hopeless. He is too old, can't keep his facts straight, mumbles when he speaks, seems afraid to come clean and surrounds himself with money grubbers. He is antithetic to the idealized form of American life, seems vicious and hot-tempered and largely untrustworthy. He is like listening to and watching a balloon deflate. And after the Rev. Wright flap, not that he has married Rev. Haggee, he wants us to grant him a public divorce and absolution. He is a kind of walking malady. As Barbara says, when reminded of McCain's war record (his sole claim to fame and justification for his qualifications?), " How much skill does it take to get captured?"
To make bad matters even worse,even the spam filter service I pay for cannot protect me from the dozens of pleas, painful begging misives and self-serving proclamations and petitions I get through email, every day. These have become nauseous. Enough, already. The system is broken and it may not be fixable. But asking me, mired in the red-necked, sort-sightedness of the hideous politics of Texas, to donate money to, or sign petitions for, causes and candidates in other states is like asking Somalia to give aid to Switzerland, because someone there unearthed a Swiss government official who bought a package of condoms, two years ago, from a dirty vending machine in a porno-shop in Belgium. Would someone please stop this? You wanna help? Stay home, look out for your own and shut down Rush Limbaugh and Fox Noise.
Anyway (no surprise here), unless something as awful and (almost) unimagineable as the nay-sayers are both imagining and pushing for in the press actually happens, I'm voting for the slender, well-dressed,clear-speaking, succinct bi-racial guy who is not a Muslim at all, for President. I can think of three or four other folks I'd like to see as VP besides Hillary, but if that turns out to be the case, so be it. If I were Barack, I wouldn't trust her behind my back with anything sharper than a wiffle ball, but it's his call (I hope. There's always the manipuable DNC) . And if he goes truly Lincoln-esque and fills a cabinet with people like John Edwards (AG?), Bill Richardson, Joe Biden and a few others who are imminently qualified to unravel the crappy, disgusting mess we have now, then I think we will be fine. Eventually. It will take awhile, but I'll be happier than I am now.
If Hillary gets the nod, which I think would be a travesty and would indicate that somethng really IS rotten in Denmark, I'll back that up, too. Even that mediocre move would be better than the gigantic world-wide stench we live in every day, now. Of course, she may want to keep Cheney on as VP. Think about it.
Now if more worse does come to worse (or worser or worst, as Olbermann would say), and McCain somehow becomes POTUS, because the Damocrats can't get their act together and keep scrapping in the schoolyard, playing kickball with one another's heads and some of them claiming inalienable rights or some such crap, then I'll have to turn my buggy around 180 degrees and get my energies, inventiveness and creativity up to speed in a different arena, altogether (I know, I just mixed up my metaphors).
Should the most dubiously honored party of the jack-ass manage to win the election, and even if they do it with "that woman" from New York, I'll go to work to find ways to make a difference in the way we live and survive and look toward the future. I'll enthusiastically plug myself into the system somehow, and figure out how to develop and maintain what my friend Ron calls "committment strategies": ways to get yourself on course and stay there once you get there. I ain't dead yet and I have time to give it all I've got.
Conversely, should the worser or worst indeed happen, I will pledge my energies to do exactly the same thing, EXCEPT, to simultaneously work as hard as possible to discredit, disarm and diffuse the Republican party in every legal and precise manner I can. They are already, by virtue of their actions in the last nearly eight years, reprehensible by their behaviour and morally indefensible in their actions and inactions. I will declare my own war on them and their tyrannical practices, their repugnant unethical stances and their greed-laden, myopic view of life on this earth.
I came to this conclusion after a conversation with Barbara, the other night, as we watched something on television, wherein Dubya made a complete ass of himself and lied, again, about yet something else. Barbara stopped the TV recorder, looked at me asked, "So what are you going to do?"...or words to that effect.
And suddenly it hit me: I'm gonna wait and see. On the Morning of Nov. 6, I'll know which way to go, where to put my energies and what heading to put the buggy on (I have to use a buggy; I can't afford the gas).
In the meantime, I'm going to swear off the media, read some more, save my energies and get my teeth fixed. Somehow, everyone will get to Nov. 5 without my further help, criticism, money or commentary.
Unless, of course, we decide to arbitrarily bomb the hell out of Iran, as a distraction. Nuts: I forgot about that one.
Life goes on in Texas.
While I was convinced that hysterics, jumping to conclusions, making dark, horrid assination inferences and endless political pandering language would rule the day, I've decided it needn't be that way. I know these things: I can't bear to see Hillary's strained face or hear her failing, tired voice on TV anymore: I just won't watch. Obama I can take in small and medium doses but it is clear that staying on the positive side of any real issues is tough, when so much of the opposition rhetoric calls for reactionary speech and defensive posturing. I get his message, now let's move on. Too much of a good thing, and all that.
McCain is the part which is hopeless. He is too old, can't keep his facts straight, mumbles when he speaks, seems afraid to come clean and surrounds himself with money grubbers. He is antithetic to the idealized form of American life, seems vicious and hot-tempered and largely untrustworthy. He is like listening to and watching a balloon deflate. And after the Rev. Wright flap, not that he has married Rev. Haggee, he wants us to grant him a public divorce and absolution. He is a kind of walking malady. As Barbara says, when reminded of McCain's war record (his sole claim to fame and justification for his qualifications?), " How much skill does it take to get captured?"
To make bad matters even worse,even the spam filter service I pay for cannot protect me from the dozens of pleas, painful begging misives and self-serving proclamations and petitions I get through email, every day. These have become nauseous. Enough, already. The system is broken and it may not be fixable. But asking me, mired in the red-necked, sort-sightedness of the hideous politics of Texas, to donate money to, or sign petitions for, causes and candidates in other states is like asking Somalia to give aid to Switzerland, because someone there unearthed a Swiss government official who bought a package of condoms, two years ago, from a dirty vending machine in a porno-shop in Belgium. Would someone please stop this? You wanna help? Stay home, look out for your own and shut down Rush Limbaugh and Fox Noise.
Anyway (no surprise here), unless something as awful and (almost) unimagineable as the nay-sayers are both imagining and pushing for in the press actually happens, I'm voting for the slender, well-dressed,clear-speaking, succinct bi-racial guy who is not a Muslim at all, for President. I can think of three or four other folks I'd like to see as VP besides Hillary, but if that turns out to be the case, so be it. If I were Barack, I wouldn't trust her behind my back with anything sharper than a wiffle ball, but it's his call (I hope. There's always the manipuable DNC) . And if he goes truly Lincoln-esque and fills a cabinet with people like John Edwards (AG?), Bill Richardson, Joe Biden and a few others who are imminently qualified to unravel the crappy, disgusting mess we have now, then I think we will be fine. Eventually. It will take awhile, but I'll be happier than I am now.
If Hillary gets the nod, which I think would be a travesty and would indicate that somethng really IS rotten in Denmark, I'll back that up, too. Even that mediocre move would be better than the gigantic world-wide stench we live in every day, now. Of course, she may want to keep Cheney on as VP. Think about it.
Now if more worse does come to worse (or worser or worst, as Olbermann would say), and McCain somehow becomes POTUS, because the Damocrats can't get their act together and keep scrapping in the schoolyard, playing kickball with one another's heads and some of them claiming inalienable rights or some such crap, then I'll have to turn my buggy around 180 degrees and get my energies, inventiveness and creativity up to speed in a different arena, altogether (I know, I just mixed up my metaphors).
Should the most dubiously honored party of the jack-ass manage to win the election, and even if they do it with "that woman" from New York, I'll go to work to find ways to make a difference in the way we live and survive and look toward the future. I'll enthusiastically plug myself into the system somehow, and figure out how to develop and maintain what my friend Ron calls "committment strategies": ways to get yourself on course and stay there once you get there. I ain't dead yet and I have time to give it all I've got.
Conversely, should the worser or worst indeed happen, I will pledge my energies to do exactly the same thing, EXCEPT, to simultaneously work as hard as possible to discredit, disarm and diffuse the Republican party in every legal and precise manner I can. They are already, by virtue of their actions in the last nearly eight years, reprehensible by their behaviour and morally indefensible in their actions and inactions. I will declare my own war on them and their tyrannical practices, their repugnant unethical stances and their greed-laden, myopic view of life on this earth.
I came to this conclusion after a conversation with Barbara, the other night, as we watched something on television, wherein Dubya made a complete ass of himself and lied, again, about yet something else. Barbara stopped the TV recorder, looked at me asked, "So what are you going to do?"...or words to that effect.
And suddenly it hit me: I'm gonna wait and see. On the Morning of Nov. 6, I'll know which way to go, where to put my energies and what heading to put the buggy on (I have to use a buggy; I can't afford the gas).
In the meantime, I'm going to swear off the media, read some more, save my energies and get my teeth fixed. Somehow, everyone will get to Nov. 5 without my further help, criticism, money or commentary.
Unless, of course, we decide to arbitrarily bomb the hell out of Iran, as a distraction. Nuts: I forgot about that one.
Life goes on in Texas.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
All Over The Map
I'm having a hard time focusing, today. The disparate messages are coming in from all over and it's hard to know where to start.
I guess the biggest brouhaha this morning has to be the latest loony tunes adventures of Dubya, coming at us from all over the world. First he announces, and the gets crucified for, that his biggest sacrifice for the war in Iraq has been giving up GOLF!!!! Which he didn't. Keith Olbermann slaughtered him last night on Countdown (you can read the whole text on MSNBCTV today), then Michael Moore and about a zillion other bloggers picked it up today and ran with it. Some even have pictures of golf clubs. Cute.
Then, to make bad matters even more ludicrous, The Shrub of TX announced, in a speech to the Israelis, that talking to leaders of countries like Iran (gasp) would be like talking appeasement with the Nazis prior to WWII. He didn't mention Obama by name but might as well have. I swear this man's cerebral cortex literally comes unscrewed whenever his mouth opens. Amazing.
But not so amazing, perhaps, as the story I just read about the Pope consecrating several thousand vrgins in Vatican Square this morning? Marrying them to Christ? I thought being a nun was being condemned to a second-class womanhood, but this "honor" doesn't even grant you the right to wear the habit. First, "Who cares?", and second, "So what?" Won't stop a war, won't feed anybody, won't stop rape and won't pull anybody out the water in Myanmar or out from under the rubble in China. Maybe actually more amazing?
Oh, and in Stephen Colbert's new book, he asks, "Since the search for the historical Jesus hasn't worked out so well, don't you think the search for the historical Mary is jumping the gun, a little bit?" Or something like that. You get the point.
And Obama made almost new news yesterday by calling a female reporter in Detroit, "Sweetie". Does the Right Rev. Wright have a comment on that? I hope not.
If you read OPEdNews.com, Jayne Stahl has a very nice, short piece about the differnce between standing on principle and doing the principled thing. Her point is that if Hilary were to do the principled thing, for the betterment of the country, she would step down, now. Read it for yourself and decide.
There's a new voice in town, thelibertyvoice.com. Surprisingly out of COWlumbus, SLOWhio, as the editor, Sherry Clark describes it. They actually publish a real newspaper you can subscribe to. They are working hard to publish what they call "Fiercely Independent News". I'm on their side.
Just in case some of you think my brain has gone completely lop-sided for political mush and vitriol, I just got FOUR new poetry books. My favorite so far is called STROKE, by Sidney Wade (Amazon, paper, about six bucks). Wow! This woman makes up the most outrageous compound words I've ever seen, but your brain knows instantly what she is talking about.
And Barbara shoved an unlikely (for me)book in my hands the other day. My unscholarly review is here:
Hold Me Tight, Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love
By Dr. Sue Johnson
A Layman's Viewpoint
This is an imminently readable book for anyone who is in love, been in love or wants to be. If you are in love, but puzzled by it, this book will help you understand the puzzle. If you have been in love, and wondered what happened, you might find the "what", here. If you want to be, now you will know what to look for. And if you are in love, and everything is fine, you will learn how to keep it that way.
The insights traverse the conceptual aspects of love through the personal, interpersonal and societal levels, and melds the rational and emotional influences of loving relationships smoothly. Dr. Johnson writes clearly and avoids the linguistic sandtraps and overly clinical mumbo-jumbo that usually arises when the simple word 'love" is talked about too much at one time. The writing is for married couples, all manner of couples thinking about marriage or partnership, families and those larger groups in society who care for and tend to one another. The glossary at the back is perfect for those of us who do not "speak the language" of therapists. The practices and exercises are simple and direct. Dr. Johnson says that these may done without professional help but one cannot help but think that they would be more effective with some objective, trained guidance.
Go it alone or go with someone, but, in any case, GO, and read it.
Storms and tornadoes rolled through central TX last night. Missed me but kept Barbara awake and blew out a window in Nick's apartment. Since there was no rain here, I have to water the herb garden. And next week I have an afternoon of being on a mock jury. I still don't know if that will obligate me to mock the judicial process. But I guess, since I'm getting paid, it proves that crime (at some level) really does pay.
Life goes on in TX.
I guess the biggest brouhaha this morning has to be the latest loony tunes adventures of Dubya, coming at us from all over the world. First he announces, and the gets crucified for, that his biggest sacrifice for the war in Iraq has been giving up GOLF!!!! Which he didn't. Keith Olbermann slaughtered him last night on Countdown (you can read the whole text on MSNBCTV today), then Michael Moore and about a zillion other bloggers picked it up today and ran with it. Some even have pictures of golf clubs. Cute.
Then, to make bad matters even more ludicrous, The Shrub of TX announced, in a speech to the Israelis, that talking to leaders of countries like Iran (gasp) would be like talking appeasement with the Nazis prior to WWII. He didn't mention Obama by name but might as well have. I swear this man's cerebral cortex literally comes unscrewed whenever his mouth opens. Amazing.
But not so amazing, perhaps, as the story I just read about the Pope consecrating several thousand vrgins in Vatican Square this morning? Marrying them to Christ? I thought being a nun was being condemned to a second-class womanhood, but this "honor" doesn't even grant you the right to wear the habit. First, "Who cares?", and second, "So what?" Won't stop a war, won't feed anybody, won't stop rape and won't pull anybody out the water in Myanmar or out from under the rubble in China. Maybe actually more amazing?
Oh, and in Stephen Colbert's new book, he asks, "Since the search for the historical Jesus hasn't worked out so well, don't you think the search for the historical Mary is jumping the gun, a little bit?" Or something like that. You get the point.
And Obama made almost new news yesterday by calling a female reporter in Detroit, "Sweetie". Does the Right Rev. Wright have a comment on that? I hope not.
If you read OPEdNews.com, Jayne Stahl has a very nice, short piece about the differnce between standing on principle and doing the principled thing. Her point is that if Hilary were to do the principled thing, for the betterment of the country, she would step down, now. Read it for yourself and decide.
There's a new voice in town, thelibertyvoice.com. Surprisingly out of COWlumbus, SLOWhio, as the editor, Sherry Clark describes it. They actually publish a real newspaper you can subscribe to. They are working hard to publish what they call "Fiercely Independent News". I'm on their side.
Just in case some of you think my brain has gone completely lop-sided for political mush and vitriol, I just got FOUR new poetry books. My favorite so far is called STROKE, by Sidney Wade (Amazon, paper, about six bucks). Wow! This woman makes up the most outrageous compound words I've ever seen, but your brain knows instantly what she is talking about.
And Barbara shoved an unlikely (for me)book in my hands the other day. My unscholarly review is here:
Hold Me Tight, Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love
By Dr. Sue Johnson
A Layman's Viewpoint
This is an imminently readable book for anyone who is in love, been in love or wants to be. If you are in love, but puzzled by it, this book will help you understand the puzzle. If you have been in love, and wondered what happened, you might find the "what", here. If you want to be, now you will know what to look for. And if you are in love, and everything is fine, you will learn how to keep it that way.
The insights traverse the conceptual aspects of love through the personal, interpersonal and societal levels, and melds the rational and emotional influences of loving relationships smoothly. Dr. Johnson writes clearly and avoids the linguistic sandtraps and overly clinical mumbo-jumbo that usually arises when the simple word 'love" is talked about too much at one time. The writing is for married couples, all manner of couples thinking about marriage or partnership, families and those larger groups in society who care for and tend to one another. The glossary at the back is perfect for those of us who do not "speak the language" of therapists. The practices and exercises are simple and direct. Dr. Johnson says that these may done without professional help but one cannot help but think that they would be more effective with some objective, trained guidance.
Go it alone or go with someone, but, in any case, GO, and read it.
Storms and tornadoes rolled through central TX last night. Missed me but kept Barbara awake and blew out a window in Nick's apartment. Since there was no rain here, I have to water the herb garden. And next week I have an afternoon of being on a mock jury. I still don't know if that will obligate me to mock the judicial process. But I guess, since I'm getting paid, it proves that crime (at some level) really does pay.
Life goes on in TX.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Nothing new, something old
It's the day after the primaries in IN and NC. Nothing has changed. There are about as many people calling for Hillary to drop out of the race as there are those cheering her on. Despite the polls and the psuedo-scientific research about who voted and why, I don't think anybody knows what's going on. A long talk with my Uncle in subrban Chicago, on the Indiana side, revealed massive foul-ups with vote counting in and around Gary and Hammond. No surprise. But's that's how Obama almost won there. And then there is the story about the campaign worker for Obama, in Evansville, IN, who asked a white, middle-class homeowner who he was voting for and the man replied, "Obama. Because we haven't had a good old fashioned assisination in a while". What is it with the Heartland? There really is nothing new. Life has no value?
As far old goes, and life having no value, I just stumbled across a piece in the Huffington Post, which had first-ever published photos of Hiroshima right after the bomb blast (yes, THAT bomb). They were taken by an unknown photographer and the film was found in a cave outside of the city by a GI, who kept them under wraps until recently. Look at them only if you are brave. The decimation and destruction is almost impossible to imagine. What is even harder to imagine is that Bush, Cheney and the neo-cons can actually even speak about using nuclear weapons, today, on anyone, anywhere. I'm sure they haven't looked at these photos. I keep forgetting, in the face of all the tomfoolery I read about every day, that the end of the world is always just no farther away than the blink of an eye and the push of a button. At three A.M. Think about it.
Life goes on in Texas.
As far old goes, and life having no value, I just stumbled across a piece in the Huffington Post, which had first-ever published photos of Hiroshima right after the bomb blast (yes, THAT bomb). They were taken by an unknown photographer and the film was found in a cave outside of the city by a GI, who kept them under wraps until recently. Look at them only if you are brave. The decimation and destruction is almost impossible to imagine. What is even harder to imagine is that Bush, Cheney and the neo-cons can actually even speak about using nuclear weapons, today, on anyone, anywhere. I'm sure they haven't looked at these photos. I keep forgetting, in the face of all the tomfoolery I read about every day, that the end of the world is always just no farther away than the blink of an eye and the push of a button. At three A.M. Think about it.
Life goes on in Texas.
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