Pakistan's ruling coalition parties say they will begin impeachment proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf. BBC News
Ugh. Those poor Pakistanis struggling with democracy. I don't mean struggling as they are with military juntas, the assassinations of opposition leaders, ensuring free and fair elections. I mean their struggle to understand, as we clearly do, that impeachment has no place in a democracy.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
If a Tree Falls in a Forest...
Did you see Dennis Kucinich present the articles of impeachment against President Jesus yesterday? No? Oh. Well, it happened.
How about American Gladiators or that American Idol with Emo Ray Cyrus? That's cool.
Anyway, in his statement he said: George W. Bush, in violation of his Constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and to the best of his ability, preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be safely executed has committed the following abuses of power...
But he's short- look at him. He looks like an elf. Or, no, not an elf- a pixie- those are girlier. He looks like a pixie.
Article I: Creating a secret propaganda campaign to manufacture a false case for war against Iraq...
I mean look at him, he's all little and wrinkly- like a white raisin with ears.
...has both personally and acting through his agents and subordinates, together with the Vice-President, illegally spent public dollars on a secret propaganda campaign to manufacture a false cause for war against Iraq. The Department of Defense has engaged in a years long secret domestic propaganda campaign...
Did you know he's a vegetarian? What a fruitcake. I mean he'd probably want it to be illegal for us to eat meat- am I right? A vegetarian- seriously, that's crazy.
... The program illegally involved, "Attempts to change opinion through the use of third parties. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld recruited 75 retired military officers and gave them talking points to deliver on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and MSNBC"...
I heard someone somewhere say he believes in ufos. Cuckoo!
... According to the Pentagon's own internal document, the military analysts were considered, "Message-force multipliers," as surrogates to deliver administration themes and messages to millions of americans in the form of their own opinions. In fact they did deliver the themes and messages but did not reveal the Pentagon had provided them with their talking points. Robert S. Bevelaqua, a retired Green Beret and Fox News analyst, described this as follows: he said, "It was them say, 'we need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you.'" Congress has restricted annual appropriations bills since 1951 with this language, and I quote, "No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States"...
What's this guy even talking about? He's crazy right? What a little jerk, he's probably just angry because he always gets pushed around and knocked over because he's so little. He's like a chihuahua that's been sat on too many times- he's barking and shaking at everything. Just look at him, how can you listen to anything he says? Seriously, I have no idea what he's talking about it.
But did you see how the audience all had Hulk fists and Titan was painted all green? That was cool.
Friday, February 08, 2008
H to He
I would guess most people would say they couldn't affirm the idea that might makes right, but what we might say aside, that's how we live. I don't mean "might" simply in the sense of who has the sticks and guns. I mean might in the sense of whatever has power. Certain things have power and those things make up how we see right and wrong.
Again, I think we probably don't want to say that's what we do, but it is what we do. For example, let's say, for the sake of argument, everyone everywhere says stealing is wrong.
Fine.
Stealing, boo!
But, what we say counts as stealing having some kind of sense depends on who we are. Finding a dollar on the sidewalk? Not stealing. Slipping a candy bar into your pocket at 7-11 and leaving without handing over some money? Stealing. Walking out of the supermarket with the pen you used to write a check? (Who writes checks, grandma?) Not stealing. Giving someone eight dollars an hour for their work? Not stealing.
Whatever, you get the point. What we say is wrong as we live it depends on some sense of us. I know that doesn't seem like it should be so. I know we want to say there is some objective certainty we'd like to have about right and wrong. It can't be so dependent on the vagaries of history, culture, life, and actual existence; that would mean anything goes wouldn't it? (And if history shows us anything, it's certainly not that anything goes~*)
C'mon. Quit being a baby, and confront how you actually live. Or quit being a Calvinist and live in the reality of the Word. Either way, are you really going to try to get away with saying that truth and questions of morality are facts or objective things?
I know the answer to that. We do try to get away with saying that is so. Even as we are busy creating our moral sense of the world, we do so with a wink. We cover the scaffolding surrounding our world with a tarp of "objectivity." Done and done.
Silly us.
But who cares? I mean if you want to pretend that X can be known to be wrong as certainly as the earth spins on an axis, that's great. Barring any mitigating circumstances, you'll likely live as if X is wrong. If I'm going to pretend that I only can know X is wrong because of some complex network or web of layered meaning, commitments, conditions, and narrative, then fine. Barring any mitigating circumstances, I'll probably live as if X is wrong.
Of course if we don't realize we are busy creating the boundaries of understanding we might not realize we are busy creating the boundaries of understanding. Something like this might fly under the radar. This being:
"The White House said Wednesday that the widely condemned interrogation technique known as waterboarding is legal and that President Bush could authorize the CIA to resume using the simulated-drowning method under extraordinary circumstances."
Hmm... maybe what MY PRESIDENT means by history being the judge is that, if we work hard enough now, well create a world wherein it is impossible to say, "Tying someone up and drowning them is wrong."
Worse... maybe not worse... Bad right along with everything else, if we don't realize we are busy creating the boundaries of understanding maybe we'll start to be so sure of ourselves and the world we've made we become the people who say stuff like, "God I thank you that I am not like other men..."
But who cares?
Oh and that time I don't mean it rhetorically. Really, who cares? Anyone? Please, help me out here.
* From now until some point in the future when I won't, I will use this symbol "~" to denote irony.
Friday, October 12, 2007
That's All We Need
What's this? A blog posting. Hmmm... weird...
Just a few months ago, the Dominionist/Reconstructionist theology websites I read were all a twitter with the hope of Cialis user Fred Thompson making a run for the Republican Presidential nomination. Now that he has, and since he's been speaking more and more, his name doesn't come up so much. There is a lot of talk about MY PRESIDENT, though- about how he's lost his mind, how he's not a real convert, how he was never really a conservative. You know what they say about broken clocks. Add his position on the Armenian genocide resolution to the mix and there are a lot of panties in a bunch. Really.
I see this as a good thing. I mean, that Thompson, and now no one, was their great hope rather than, say, Huckabee, makes the political cynicism of the militant Christianists a bit more transparent and may cause some serious and thoughtful reflection on everyone's part. Even their fear of women and black men can't bring them together, and don't be fooled, White Maoi, 9/11 in Drag, and Those Aren't My Grandchildren really want you to remember a women- a Clinton woman- could become president.
And this wholesale abandonment of the electoral process doesn't necessarily mean anything positive for the Democratic hopefuls. You cannot overstate how much most of America hates women, black people, and men who comb their hair.
But all of this was before today- before the Nobel Peace Prize announcement. If you're a lunatic afraid of persecution and the novus ordo seclorum, doesn't this prove there is some liberal global cabal? WE are alone in the world- an autocephalic light for Christ. And now with the General Secretary of the UN speaking of his faith and quoting scripture (gees, Anti-Christ, how about some subtlety) there may be enough motivation on their part to come together to save America.
This is their kairos. Maybe.
"a women"? Nothing for two weeks and "a women"? Nice.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Where's Your Cowboy Now?
I've often wondered about this. I guess now I know. Not a single horse at the Texas Villa... and only five cows.
Who would've guessed the Andover Cheerleader- I mean the Texas Cowboy- doesn't like horses?
Monday, September 10, 2007
Spare Any Change?
"As a jailed Ricardo Rolon awaits arraignment with three others on suspicion of killing a Pico Rivera grandmother when she tried to stop a tagger, his mother, Carmen, sprang to his defense Friday, lashing out at authorities for portraying him as an out-of-control gangster...
The truth is, Carmen Rolon says, that her son was extremely drunk on the day Maria Hicks was gunned down in her car after flashing her lights at a tagger to try to get him to stop spray-painting a wall in Pico Rivera.
'He had a job, he was a good worker, he has two (young) sons, he went to school, he has a certificate of completion -- but they've never said anything about that,' she said."
She'd have been better off if she had tried this at the beginning of the credibility year. Maybe then there might have been enough in the budget to go for this, but I think most people, most of the people she'd want to reach anyway, are already running a BS deficit. What with wide stances and successful surges, a lot of people are already giving everything they can to believe.
It's not like it's impossible, or even unheard of, for us to make sense of the supposedly senseless. Afterall, she's using some very good points: we don't see the whole picture, the media are one-sided, we should focus on the present and not past mistakes- unless past mistakes can be viewed as someone else's responsibility, we need to support abstract ideals like MOTHERHOOD and CHILDREN, we need to fight them over there so we don't fight them over here. No wait- that last one's not hers, but it might work... No, I suppose not. Okay, the point remains; we are quite adept at making the pieces fit- at least to individual satisfaction.*
Maybe there are better things for a father of two young children to be doing than getting drunk, tagging, and being involved in shooting an old lady, but now's not the time for playing the blame game, rehashing mistakes, or questioning the decision to pay for Palo's defense when Carmen is homeless and $25,000 in debt from a previous legal case. Right now the only thing worth focusing on is how to support her boy's defense.
Maybe there's something to that, but Carmen's timing is a bit off. People aren't necessarily tired of crap. We just don't have the capacity to work with too much at once. General Petraeus will be giving his oral report tomorrrow, bombs keep blowing up, and with every American that dies, we're deeper into the pot. We're tapped out with just war, let alone pro-family politicians that aren't into their spouses, trying to believe in something like FREEDOM and the GWOT, or just all the day to day garbage we have to reconcile with who we think we are.
It's a lot to ask; yellow ribbons are on backorder and already committed to another purpose.
*I like to pretend that Iraq is a wonderful missions field- not to the Iraqis of course. I mean it's a place where American service personnel have the opportunity to really examine their lives and come to a personal relationship with Jesus. That's how I sleep at night.
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Thursday, May 10, 2007
As Long As It Looks Like I'm Listening...
Last night on Countdown, and in today's NY Times, it's reported that a contingent of Republican representatives confronted MY PRESIDENT with the reality of at least the political situation regarding Iraq.
They are reported to have said conditions need to dramatically improve or more Republicans would desert him. MY PRESIDENT's reported to have said he does not want to leave this fiasco with another president- certainly not a Democratic president. And so he was willing to listen.
Considering how much MY PRESIDENT hates accountability and his inability to publicly change his mind, this seems somewhat promising- like when you see your torturer go for the rubber hose instead of the beaded whip. That's something that might brighten your day.
But three things concern me.
1.) These stories are based on leaked reports of a political event. It provides another opportunity for the president to lift some spirits and maybe touch somebody's soul without really doing or committing to anything that might remedy some of the disaster all around him. There's really no there there. It's just another moment of image; in the residential section of the White House, he was playing the compassionate listener, the father who understands and suffers with his children, but still knows best. Instead of a flight suit or his brush-clearing gloves, he wore a cardigan and as thoughtful an expression he could muster.
John Boehner said "It was very healthy."
Another at the meeting said, “I walked away from it feeling I got a chance to make my points."
See, everyone, daddy's a listening cowboy.
Isn't that very special? It was healthy, I felt listened to. Doesn't that seem exactly how you would feel after a meeting with this guy? I really do think about this video too much.
2.) Even if this does indicate a change in MY PRESIDENT'S perspective, the dynamics of the collective discussion on what a withdrawal might look like have created a very limited range of possibility. For too long people have been framing this in terms of "stay the course" or "cut and run." I absolutely think that's the fault of Republicans who have tried to paint anyone in any way critical of the war as freedom hating cowards living in a pre 9/11 world emboldening Al Qaeda and not supporting the troops.
Why, my very own David Dreier came out just the other day with a line about the Democrats turning their backs on the troops because they wanted, along with the majority of Americans, to find a way to responsibly withdraw from Iraq.
I'm afraid we currently lack the imagination or creativity necessary to consider options other than "Throw more bodies into the mill" or "We're done, someone else can clean up after us." MY PRESIDENT hates internationalism, we continue to blame the Iraqis for the mess we created, MY PRESIDENT can't even work with people of the same party who are not loyal enough, how will we build real coalitions and do the work necessary to stabilize Iraq? Even as you read that, are you able to think that "stabilize Iraq" can mean anything other than send more people with guns?
3.) Another "even if this is true" concern has to do with how well thought out and planned everything else MY PRESIDENT has done. I'm sure I know plenty of 28 percenters who could give me a list of success stories but I still worry we'd get Shell and Exxon supervising a bunch of recent Bob Jones and Liberty University graduates to work on a stabilization and withdrawal as successful as the Great Missile Defense Net in the Sky that was all the rage before 9/11... no, not that... the pre-war intelligence gathering... no... Katrina cleanup... no... the WTC/9-11 memorial... hmm... the Medicare Drug program... no... environmental protection and leadership... no... C'mon, there's go to be something- Oh lower taxes right! That's something that... led us... to an amazing $8,000,000,000,000 debt. But who cares? That's not even a real number.
So maybe we really have turned a corner. Or maybe we realize that farther up the street, there really is a corner and we could turn it.
Most of These People Are Dead or Broken Up Waiting in Vain- Bob Marley Getaway- Stereophonics I Fall to Pieces- Patsy Cline Battle Royal- Duke Ellington Back in The Day- Erykah Badu Oh My Golly- The Pixies Morning Bell- Radiohead It's the Sun- Polyphonic Spree Nobody Else But Me- Stan Getz Maria La Bandida- Jimenez You Can't Stop the Prophet- Jeru The Damaja You Ain't Goin' Nowhere- Bob Dylan I'll Sleep When I'm Dead- Warren Zevon Reality- David Bowie I Just Wasn't Made for These Times- The Beach Boys
Friday, March 23, 2007
In Fact, They're A' Peeling Him Off The Sidewalk
I don't think he cares, but MY PRESIDENT appeals to me when he talks about Latin America...
No...
I find MY PRESIDENT appealing when he talks about Latin America. Even though I distrust the neo-liberal model of the world that equates democracy with capitalism and capitalism with US economic colonialism, I find his thoughts on Latin America to be one of the few areas where he is speaking about something for which he has actual thoughts and cares. I don't buy almost anything he says about the region, but at least it is one of the few times he is not talking out of his butt. Or even if he is, at least his butt has given it some thought.
That appeals to me, though I don't think he is trying to appeal to me, or people like me.
I think this is a reason he appeals to so many Evangelicals.
By his design, or that of his handlers, he surrounds himself with like-minded loyalists who have no time nor need to consider any view but their own because they are right. I guess it's not just him- I know it's not just him. It's an entire culture.
Tom Delay has been on radio and TV lately hawking whatever it is the Devil has him hawking. He said things that were very telling. Tom Delay said it's been four years since America has been attacked by "these" terrorists and that's why we have to be in Iraq.
Really.
On national television- the former House Majority Leader called the Hammer for his reputation of disciplining those not in agreement with him said the US was attacked four years ago (?) and we had to strike back (?) and that's why we're in Iraq(?).
That's absolutley not true but that is his justification for why we are who we are.
He also said on NPR that he had a responsibility to destroy those that didn't see the world as he did and create a governmental structure that would prevent them from having any say in government.
His job was to eliminate those that did not share this false sense of the world?
John Bolton was on the Daily Show explaining this regime's conception of democracy: MY PRESIDENT- or any president- only has to represent those that voted for him. People that don't share or support your agenda are not Americans, at least they're not the right kind of Americans.
In case you didn't know, that's not democracy. Even if it's hard to define as it's actually experienced- it's not that.
Okay, maybe you say Tom Delay is an aberration and doesn't represent MY PRESIDENT or his ideology. And John Bolton's lost his job, so he isn't representative of what MY PRESIDENT is all about either. I'd say you're wrong and the whole history of MY PRESIDENT valuing loyalty over competence, dismissing and discounting alternative perspectives, fabricating and/or selectively believing and interpreting "facts," and the IGMFY mentality would say so as well.
Do you remember how Dick Cheney said, "simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction?" The being wrong part isn't as problematic as the "no doubt," because, well, there was a lot of doubt. At least others doubted it, questioned it, wanted to understand it. But there was no room for doubting the earth was created in six literal days- I mean, no room for doubting the existence of weapons of mass destruction because it did not fit in with their agenda or sense of what they wanted the world to be. Though I wouldn't guess Cheney actually believed there were weapons of mass destruction- it was just something necessary to affirm to get along.
And this current mess with the fired USA's fits right in with that. Doesn't it? I mean even if you think it's okay to fire otherwise competent federal prosecutors just because you don't like that they are investigating your criminal friends, isn't MY PRESIDENT's stonewalling and saying he and his employees have no obligation to tell the truth, and has no responsibility to anyone else leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth? It should.
America is only for those people who support them. They only need to address the interests of those who match up with their way of thinking. The world is for those who share their vision of what the world is and for. What a weird sense of America that is. What a weird sense of the world that is. But what a sense of America that seems to match up so well with what Evangelicals seem to think churches are for.
Is that where we are- is that what we value? Leaders who's greatest strengths are disregarding others and surrounding themselves with yes men? Presenting a world of cosmic war where you're either "we" or "other?" Creating a sense of fear and persecution and setting the truth of your claims on various types of coercion?
Our country's... and churches are being run by high schoolers- a certain type of high schooler anyway.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Tonight We Dine In Hell...
... and have quesadillas.
I'm never going to finish my anniversary letter to Iraq. It was a great idea though- a love letter from a crazy man.
Oh well.
On to things I can finish- like my review of 300. I love blood and physics defying fight scenes. But more than that I love narratives that put into clear contrast the divisive ideologies and issues of our times.
I know there's some tadoo about whether this is an allegory for our current context and who's who, but I don't understand the confusion. Clearly King Leonidas, especially as he is heroically leading his soldiers into battle, fighting alongside them, facing down a technologically and numerically superior force is a perfect picture of MY PRESIDENT. I don't even think metaphor and allegory are correct terms. Leonidas in 300 is an exact representation of MY PRESIDENT. Leonidas is MY PRESIDENT. MY PRESIDENT is Leonidas.
When I think of the Spartan code- the drive, the austerity, the willingness to put tribe before any personal ambition or desire, how could I not think of MY college cheerleading, cocaine snorting, commitment avoiding, mountain biking PRESIDENT?
I was also very inspired by the, pro-eugenics propaganda, tribalism and Sparta for free Spartans. Not to mention the homoeroticism, disdain for religious irrationality, and standing naked in picture windows. That is so us.
So we are the Spartans, a small committed, simple Greek tribe, and the Persians are... everyone else. And everyone else is superstitious, sexually ambiguous, lustful, deformed, pierced, and creepy. Oh wait. We also have allies. But they're gay or wimps. And I suppose I can't say we are the Spartans. I guess I'm the Malian Ephialtes; what with all my contempt for hegemony.
That's cool too though. At least I know place.
So go see 300 and tell me if you don't see everything as clearly as I did.
Friday, February 16, 2007
US to Attack US
MY PRESIDENT says that he will do what he has to do to protect our soldiers from Iranians who are killing American soldiers. That might include bombing Iran, kidnapping Iranians, killing Iranians or anything else that Iran might take as an act of war. He says this because Iranian components have been found in a handful of explosive devises being used in Iraq against coalition forces.
This may be the case- it's hard to know when the boy has really seen a wolf. And if he really has seen a wolf- it's hard to know where the wolf came from or what the wolf is doing. After all, the boy has a record of being mistaken or mendacious and as far as the facts go, Iran is largely Shi'ah but in Iraq, Americans are being killed by Sunnis. I know, I know, it's hard to tell who's who- they're all brown.
Think of the Shi'ah as the brown people that clean your house or cook your food and the Sunnis as the brown people you encounter in public. You probably don't like any of them, but at least you know how to handle the brown people that do your dirty work. Those brown people on the street might know their place or they might not. They might rob you, they might not. You don't know. You can't trust them. You'd better call the cops to get rid of them.
So the brown people who do our cooking in Iraq are some of the ones we found to have these components. Eh, maybe you're just as scared about that. That's probably part of the plan. Our war experts and apologists told us that there is no difference or conflict between Sunnis and Shia- they're all brown. The Arab world is largely controlled by Sunni Muslims, and most Muslims are Sunni, it's probably a factor to consider but I don't think we're supposed to care about or consider that. Just be afraid.
Anyway, what's all this for? Well it's probably an excuse for an attack on Iran. I mean if it's Iranian bombs that are killing American soldiers, doesn't it make sense to punish Iran? Sure. But what do we do about the American weapons that are being used to kill Americans?
Someone could say that we already are punished by war profiteers and the rule of corporate plutocrats. Maybe we have exactly what we deserve by letting it stand for so long. I doubt you are one of the top .5%, so you probably are being punished. But you probably don't feel it as much as these guys. We probably deserve a little bit more than horrible debt, a wholly undemocratic economic system, declining wages, a regressive tax structure, and the illusion of representative government. I wonder what it will be.
(Ooh look how that sentence is tense- do I mean we deserve more because human dignity requires more than what we have- or do I mean we deserve more because we most certainly should be punished? Now why would I go and lift the veil like that? Why coudn't I just let it be? Like I worry about self-seriousness so much- like it's a shame to care about anything.)
Hey, Rocky, Watch Me Pull a Massacre Out of My Hat Rock Is Dead- Marilyn Manson Clumsy Grandma...- Ya Lo Tengo Breed- Nirvana Here Today- The Beach Boys Hand In Glove- The Smiths You Are The Sunshine of My Life- Stevie Wonder Potshot Heard Round the World- Dead Kennedys Join Together- The Who
Friday, February 09, 2007
Everyone You Know Someday Will Die
Since March 19th, 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, there have been 3118 coalition deaths. That's less than the number of liberated dead Iraqi civilians but more than the number of Americans killed by Iraqis on 9/11 or Americans killed by Iraqi WMDs combined.
About 1400 days with 3118 deaths comes to just a tad more than 2 deaths a day (remember, we're not counting the liberated dead, nor the non-fatal casualties). That doesn't seem so bad does it?
I think we can live with that. Better, we can afford that. I mean we're 300,000,000. What's two a day, especially when you consider birth and immigration rates? You don't even miss those people. In fact, if my calculations are correct, for every American death in Iraq, almost 3600 people come into the US- either over a border or through a birth canal.
I guess two a day might seem like a lot if you know those two. I suppose one a day is a lot if you know that one. Maybe if Therrel Childers had been the first and only death in Iraq that would be a lot if you knew him. But you probably don't. And you probably don't know Jay Aubin, or Ryan Beaupre, or Jose Gutierrez. It's not like two people a day are disappearing from your workplace, or school, or congregation. We need to remember this, especially when we hold it in the light of what we've given the Iraqis. Wouldn't we appreciate if someone did the exact same thing for us? And considering how little it costs, even if things don't go exactly right, isn't it still a bargain?
It's important that we get our heads on right because it looks like we'll be giving Iran the same gifts soon. We really need to consider the costs before we do. And it turns out, the costs aren't so great. Unless of course you count the liberated dead... and maybe count the injured... and then other things that are hard to quantify like the damage to our souls. But why would we do that?
Longview Tear It In Two- The Briefs Levitate Me- The PIxies Uptight (Everything's Alright)- Stevie Wonder Mambo King- Tito Puente The End Has No End- The Strokes Everything Is Broken- Bob Dylan She Watch Channel Zero- Public Enemy Macho Insecurity- Dead Kennedys
Friday, December 01, 2006
What's This For?
How can I stay away from you?
Well, There're some Festering topics that have been hovering on my desktop for a while now. In fact many of them are hovering over this picture. I need to get them off my raw turkey before I can finish writing papers and grading.
Speaking of papers...
Welcome to 1970 A recent Kentucky editorial seems to be confusing our contemporary historical situation with a previous. Given the milieu of an over-reaching impeachable executive, an interminable no-win military quagmire, looming fuel shortages, Middle-East violence, and an odd turn for otherwise great musicians, it's hard to fault them for coming to the conclusion they do. But hippies? Really? I don't see many around anymore, but then I live in Southern California- not really the hotbed of liberalism that Lexington, Kentucky is.
Speaking of hippies...
Simplify, Man The Supreme Court is listening to a case regarding the EPA's role in actually protecting the environment. You would think the the Environmental Protection Agency might have a role in that- you'd be wrong. The case started sometime ago when EPA was petitioned to set greenhouse gas emission standards.
In 2003, the agency denied the petition, saying that it lacked statutory authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, even though the agency in previous administrations had held that it did. Further, the agency said, even if it did have authority, it was not required to use it.
So how does it look for this particular case, especially given the controversy in the non-scientific community over whether we contribute to climate change? Well how's this: "I mean," asked Justice Antonin Scalia, "when is the predicted cataclysm?" At one point, he acknowledged the role of carbon dioxide as a pollutant in the air but wondered about it being a pollutant in the "stratosphere." "Respectfully, Your Honor, it is not the stratosphere. It's the troposphere," Milkey said. "Troposphere, whatever. I told you before I'm not a scientist," Scalia said to laughter.
I'm sure things will be just fine.
Speaking of hell...
That Whole "Christian" Thing- It's Just a Name, Dude
The president-elect of the Christian Coalition announced Tuesday that he was stepping down, saying that the religious group appeared to balk at his proposals to focus on environmental and anti-poverty issues rather than on purely "moralistic" issues such as abortion.
This is no lefty president-elect; he's a Southern giga-church pastor who just happened to think the Bible is concerned with more than stone monuments to the ten commandments and gays burning flags at their weddings. I guess he thinks being a Christian is not the same thing as being a right wing kook. Seriously. Weird eh?. That whole full Gospel approach to faith won't really play to their base.
This might be one of those times when someone would say, "At least they're being honest." I guess. But it seems like that kind of honesty one finds when a spouse is caught cheating or a tumor metastasizes when you hoped it would just go away.
Speaking of not going away...
Word To your Father Turns out MY PRESIDENT isn't so popular in the rest of the world and some people in the rest of the world wanted his father to get that message to him.
"We do not respect your son. We do not respect what he's doing all over the world," a woman audience member bluntly told Bush after his keynote speech. Bush appeared stunned as the audience of young business leaders whooped and whistled in approval. The retired president had just finished a folksy address on leadership by telling the audience how deeply hurt he feels when his son the president is criticized.
Or maybe they just wanted him to feel deeply hurt. I mean, why else criticize his boy?
Then how about something that's decidedly not Wrong, Terrible, or... Freaky... Funny... Foul? Yes, Foul. It's more of a thank God there's at least one American Christian thinking of this.
Jimmy Carter's new book identifies conditions in Israel as they are- apartheid. I know that sounds horrible. There's two reasons for that: 1.) we hear nothing of the conditions the majority of Palestinians suffer and 2.) it's a horrible thing.
Do you think that's an overstatement? Do you think that somehow I'm being hard on Israel? It's weird how most American Evangelicals were on the wrong side of the fence with South Africa too. And that was without the looney tunes Left Behind theology.
If you'd like to learn more about the apartheid conditions in Israel, visit your local library, or if you're worried about being put on a government watch list, you can go here. But that'll probably get you on a list too. You could also just buy the Christian Former President's book. I'm going to. I suppose that's list fodder as well.
Thanks to Grandpa for turning me on to the celebration of greed and materialism that is the Amazon Wish List.
Now Rocking Buzzcocks- Encore Du Pain: Live in Paris
Friday, November 17, 2006
Why That Face?
Every Sperm Is Sacred While in Missouri, it was impossible to go five minutes without seeing some type of anti-abortion propaganda. There were billboards literally in sight of each other with pictures of babies doing non-baby things along with some corresponding copy- like a pre-cognitive baby photographed at the moment their fist is at their chin so they seem inquisitive, and then a thought bubble reading "Did you know... life begins at conception?" They struck me a bit like those black and white posters highlighted with bits of color, where children in adult clothes do adult things and give me the creeps.
Anyway, along with the barrage of infants thinking, there were also probably as many billboards telling me who to call to get a vasectomy reversed. I thought it was strange but didn't give it much more thought until I heard about these crazies. Quiver Full Ministries will provide you with the immaterial resources you need to raise 6, 8, 13, hell, even two dozen kids. And if you've gone and done something horrible like have a vasectomy, Blessed Arrows will help you repent by paying for a vasectomy reversal. Doesn't their animation seem disturbing- on many levels?
Anyway, if you're not having a full quiver of children, I'll see you in hell... from heaven. Or maybe hell, I'm not sure what their theology would do with me. I continue to have sex knowing that reproduction is not likely... I'm guessing they probably would focus on the intent and openness to children... No that's still no good for them since gay people might want to have children and be completely open to the possibility... What to do, what to do?
Speaking of crazy ideas about sex...
You Won't Go Blind, But Your Head Will Explode And You'll See Cartoon Characters Everywhere MY PRESIDENT's new appointee for a role at the Department of Population Affairs says sex causes brain damage. He has pictures and big words to prove it. So, kids, don't have sex. Finally irrefutable proof, modern science has all the answers we need and they, conveniently enough, correspond to the instructions we seem to find in the Bible.
Some people might say positions that say GOD=SCIENCE are just as absurd as BATS=BIRDS. But obviously they're wrong. Unless... (I'm rubbing my chin and and gazing at the ceiling)... Nope that's the way it is.
Speaking of heads exploding...
Who Says Never Swear, Neither By Heaven Nor Earth? Because I hate myself I often sign up for various newsletters, articles and releases that often have the subtitle "Where's the Outrage?!" Articles like this.
You may have heard the first Muslim ever was elected to Congress. Are you outraged yet? Well dig this: he swore on a Qur'an. Did you crap your pants? Let me say it again: He swore on... (wait for it)... A QUR'AN!!
I guess there's a lot wrong with me if I find this event just as meaningful (read meaningless) as swearing on a Bible, a dictionary, a hymnal, or stack of comic books. But the outrage and fear she's trying to muster about this, that I like. That means something. I especially like this:
Ellison will be sworn in on a Koran. So now the Bible is equivalent to the Koran in the halls of Congress? Doesn't this then mean he is pledging allegiance to Islamic Law (Sharia) rather than our Constitution? Where is the outrage here? He will also bring his prayer mat and pray to Mecca. Ellison is a Sunni Muslim.
Oh in case you didn't know, BIBLE=CONSTITUTION.
Speaking of Muslims in Congress...
I Feel Like Saying "You're a Dirty Redneck That's Going to Lynch Me" Glenn Beck is a dough faced AM radio guy that got a gig on CNN's Headline News. I understand it's a saturated market- what's an inarticulate, humorless, "conservative" white guy to do to prove that he, at last, speaks for us. Well how about stooping even lower than the others? That's not easy, but he's making some progress. One way he's done that is to disregard all the KKK, Council of Conservative Citizens, Christian Identity Movement, and other white supremacist affiliated and supported Representatives and Senators in Congress, and ask the one American Muslim to prove he's not allied with any foreign groups that don't want us in their backyards.
With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, "Let's cut and run." And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies." And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.
GLENN BECK=PURE KOUNTRY
Is This A New Feature? There is No Greater Love- Dizzy Gillespie Freedom of Choice- Devo Taxman- The Beatles Break My Body- The Pixies Sitting in Limbo- Jimmy Cliff Wild World- Jimmy Cliff I'm Tongue Tied- The Magnetic Fields Fleshdunce- Dead Kennedys Rock 'n' Roll Suicide- David Bowie London Calling- The Clash Iron Man- Black Sabbath Adult Books- X Electricity- Talking Heads
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
You're Killing Me, Larry
If you're not familiar with Sit n Sleep and their commercials, consider yourself lucky. Even just thinking about them, the stupid catchphrases are stuck in my head, and probably will be until iTunes pulls up an ABBA song (c'mon Waterloo). Their commercials are stupid and annoying, as are a lot of commercials. I'd embed a video of the commercial as a point of reference, but apparently no teenagers have thought to upload any to YouTube. My point is not that they're stupid. Like I said, that's not much in the world of commercials. I think they also happen to be anti-semitic. Oh I found them.
I have no problem with using stereotypes in satire or to make a good point. Dave Chappelle using stereotypes to undermine them and mock the people who actually believe they are useful tools for negotiating life or controlling others is perfect... mostly.
Whatever.
Sit n Sleep's use of cheap Jewish stereotypes is for nothing more than selling mattresses- talk about a shonda. An accountant named Irwin with a whiney, nasally voice complaining about how much money they're losing... am I the only one who sees this? Really?
M'eh...
Maybe I'm paranoid, maybe I'm just a baby, maybe I'm just smarter than most people, but I notice these things. You need me. You need me to see these things. Things like the convergence of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, the secret listing of Americans who cannot enter or leave the country, the Justice Dept. and courts saying non-citizens can be held indefinitely without trial, and MY PRESIDENT saying it's exceptional that we still held elections even though we're at war.
A nutshell: a.) Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act: If you cause economic loss for a business via any form of protest you can be declared a terrorist. (Read- if you sponsor a successful boycott or peacefully picket a place and customers are turned away, you're a terrorist) b.) You can be secretly placed on a no entry/exit list, even with a visa, and have no way to challenge your placement because the whos, hows, and whats of the list are a secret, essentially making you a prisoner without trial. c.) The universal rights of people and limits on a government's power to imprison people claimed in our Bill of Rights seems to not matter. Mix this with the increasing ways "the government" can label people terrorists, combatants, or otherwise outside of the protection of the Constitution, mmmm that's good tyranny. d.) The Constitutional given that we elect our leaders isn't such a given if it's ever a surprise that we would hold elections.
If 9/11 changed everything- if it changed things to this, didn't "they" win?
Look I have papers to finish and essays to grade. You have to start putting these pieces together without me.
Okay- I know how we'll do this. Here's a test. Here's another commercial I'm a big baby about. In this case I am sure I'm right. So what do you think?
Does it help if I tell you that Chevy named this commercial "RaHoWa?"
They didn't, but when it's this obvious do they have to?
Oh well; good luck.
Now Is the Time I Disappear Delta 88- X Superstition- Stevie Wonder With a Little Luck- Paul McCartney I Asked For Water- Howlin' Wolf Talk About the Passion- REM Gouge Away- Pixies C-C- Tom Vek Gimme the Car- Violent Femmes Casey Jones- Grateful Dead It Aint Easy- David Bowie Brazil- Juan Garcia Esquivel (how appropriate)
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Maybe If We Think, and Wish, and Hope, and Pray It Might Come True...
Jon Stewart? Really. I literally said, "Now it's the Democrats turn to be perverted and corrupt." But what thanks do I get?- What payment do I get? Nothing. Even the knowledge that I came up with it first is like ashes in my mouth. Whatever. Like it's that clever of a joke anyway.
So I had someone come whooping into class yesterday saying how happy she was that Rumsfeld resigned and it looked like both Houses of Congress were going Democrat. That's cool. Being a hippy fag, I am happy to see this "thumpin,'" as MY PRESIDENT has put it. But, in the same vein, that is as a hippy fag, I am wary of the "election as climax" view.
I'm a liberal because I believe in the potential of the state to do good. I believe in cooperation, planning, a public, a common weal, responsibility to and for each other, and the real historic manifestation of these ideas. But I'm a Christian- so I see us individually as contingent, limited, prone to failure in our best efforts, selfish, easily seduced by power, and perfectly content to destroy everything, including ourselves, in our lust for that power. Though, also as a Christian, that's not the whole story; I am hopeful. I guess I'm a hippy Jesus fag.
I guess.
I don't buy into the fear. I'm not too worried about the Heterosexual Exclusion Act of 2007. I'm actually looking forward to some good old San Francisco values. I hope some good can be done. I hope the Feingolds, the Deans, the Kucinchs... Kuciniches... Kucinichen? will last longer and do more than the Clintons and Feinsteins. Expanding Medicare, raising the minimum wage, putting us back on the right side of the Geneva Conventions, grinding up old people and feeding them to the poor- there's some work to do I suppose. But won't it be nice if Congress actually does work, some function over dysfunction?
Eh...? Maybe? Fingers crossed?
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Back to The Future
Farmers farming, small businesses growing, people going to the market all under a government that is sovereign, can sustain and defend itself, and is a US ally. That's why we invaded and now occupy Iraq. At least that's what MY PRESIDENT says. (No transcript link as the news conference is still under way).
Uh... isn't that a bit vague or a kind of low bar? I know he's not very specific when he talks about things like freedom and democracy, and when he's more specific, what he describes hardly sounds like the kind of freedom and democracy humans require. I mean, after all, isn't what he describes what existed under Saddam Hussein? That's sad.
Oh and here's a fun quote from the news conference: "Look, I rea- uh I look at the newspapers around here."
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
It Works If You Work It
Rename The Policy Game That's Not a Game My interblog contests don't work so I won't try to force a game out of it, though it would be a good one.
We know now that "Stay The Course" was never MY PRESIDENT'S Iraq war policy; only an idiot would think that's what he meant when he said it. But still, he probably won't be saying it as much. What will he say?
If it were a game I would say suggest your name for the policy and you could win something... something like... a Serrano Chile Plant. Yes!
Okay, I am so spineless. It's a game. If you come up with a new suggestion for the new Iraq War policy euphemism (that's probably going to become what has heretofore been characterized as "cut and run") and I pick it as the winner, you win a Serrano Chile plant. I also have some Habanero plants, I guess I could give one of those to a really great name. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself.
There it is, win a FREE chile plant by renaming the Iraq War Policy euphemism. Make salsa for your friends.
Your Future Lies Before You
So a big story for hippies this week is how MY PRESIDENT has said his policy has never been "stay the course." That anyone would make political hay of this is really a disservice to our country and reveals how little they know the man in the office. But perhaps worse, it misses the opportunity for personal growth that MY PRESIDENT offers whenever he speaks.
It's true MY PRESIDENT did say the US would "stay the course" in Iraq, over and over again. But to say that he meant we would "stay the course" in Iraq when he said we would "stay the course" really doesn't grasp the nuance of language and understanding, and how MY PRESIDENT, especially, is a master of variegated interpretations and layered meanings.
His words reach out to us and demand from us participation in understanding. That's what language generally requires, but MY PRESIDENT takes it further and cleverly uses the simplest expressions to address the most complex realities, and in that we are required to move beyond a facile awareness of life and into a deeper interrelatedness with each other and our real historic conditions.
When he says, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," the simple hearer might take those words at face value and imagine they represent some sort of actual reality or correspond to a clearly identified US policy. As if yes could mean yes and no, no.
"We do not torture" would mean we do not torture. "No war plans on my desk" would have a clear and direct meaning. But that understanding would merely be superficial. If that were the case, officially declaring Syria a sponsor of terrorism could mean something like we would not send a Canadian citizen making a stopover at JFK to Syria to be tortured. Is that what we want- to passively accept assumed meanings like some type of machine simply receiving input?
MY PRESIDENT is extending an invitation; he wants us to think deeply and grow beyond the convention of words and the limited conditions through which we perceive the world. He wants us to be more than cogs or processors and join him in creating meaning and crafting our reality. FREEDOM is definitely on the march, but not only from "Cairo to Kabul;" he invites us to free our minds as well.
If we accept his offer, not only are we freed from the prison of convention and imposed meaning, but we are suddenly bound to each other in new and exciting ways. We become members of a free and genuine community of our own making.
I'm An Alligator, I'm a Mama-Papa Coming For You No Shuffle Play: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust- David Bowie
I need to get them off my raw turkey before I can finish writing papers and grading. 
Finally irrefutable proof, modern science has all the answers we need and they, conveniently enough, correspond to the instructions we seem to find in the Bible.
