Why Iraq Will Probably Remain A Hopeless Disaster

Like a lot of people last night, I was a captive audience to Bush's ill-advised and innappropriate campaign speech which was ostensibly billed as a memorial to the 9/11 victims. Luckily, he didn't cut out the enjoyment of either of my guily pleasures of tv viewing, "Prison Break" and "Vanished", he just abruptly appearred on my tv screen for about twenty eternal minutes between the two. I found myself feeling like a prisoner, and wished that he would just vanish.

So far, no word on what effect this will have on his sagging poll numbers, but I am thinking it can't be good. Nor do I think for one minute he did his fellow Republican party members, especially those running for re-election in their various races, the least bit of good. Most Americans, whether they are Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, will surely see this for what it was-a politically motivated speech given in such a way as to lock out the traditional oppossing party viewpoint.

And it had little to do with remembering the victims of 9/11, although that was it's stated purpose. Instead, it was yet another in a series of "stay the course" speeches, aimed not just at the war on terror, but by implication, the Iraqi War. Actually, especially that. He made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that we would finish the job in Iraq, and painted a disturbing picture of the potential consequences were we not to do this.

Although it is good the Democrats did not provide an equally innapropriate political response to his speech, it would do us well to look at the main reason the War in Iraq has been such a failure, and one of catastrophic proportions.

It's not just that we went in with far too few troops, with no real help from our traditional allies-even Britain, our strongest ally in the war, provided jusy a small percentage of troops relative to ours, and they have been stationed for the most part in the relatively peaceful Shi'ite South-nor is it simply that we miscalculated the degree and intensity of the insurrection from the various internal parties to the conflict. All this is very true, and has resulted in our being bled dry in terms of money thrown haplessly into this seemingly bottomless pit. It is also true that it has caused us no small degree of anger and even hatred from a great many Arab and Muslim nations, even those that are, like Britain, ostensibly our allies, and where as well our policies are contoversial at best.

The latter of course was to be expected, and can be seen as merely the unexpressed reality finally coming to the surface. And even this seems not to have been a part of the military and political calculations of the Bush Administration, and so this, as well as everything else I mentioned, points to a degree of incompetence that is absolutely remarkable.

The only thing that can possibly lead to a succesful conclusion in our favor, is if the Iraqi government maintains it's power, and establishes a police, security, and military force that is capable of standing up to any threat, and soundly defeating it. Once it establishes it's position and relegates the terrorist insurgency to irrelevance, then and only then can the Iraqi War be seen as a success. But they have to be the ones to do this.

Unfortunately, this requires a degree of professional training which has been slow in coming. Nor do I think it will ever occur. I pointed this out some months ago, and now it seems appropriate to say it again. The United States military and government are not in a hurry to train a professional, standing Iraqi army capable of holding it's own against any foreign or domestic threat.

The reason for this is simple, and in a way understandable. The US government and military establishment is loathe to admit it, but it makes sense. The last thing they want is an Iraqi army, trained to US military levels, that might one day form, under a majority Shi'ite government, a military and political alliance with Iran. Or one that might eventually come under the control of another Saddam, perhaps worse than the original.

Such a professional military, under such leadership, might pose a far greater threat to US interests and to Middle East stability and security than Saddam ever could have-even in his wildest dreams.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what it is going to take to resolve this conflict, like it or not. We just have to take our chances, bluntly stated. It's that, or, as Bush and the Republicans like to say, "cut and run". Those are the only two options. One is acceptable, though a gamble. The other is not, but at some future date may become unnavoidable. Otherwise, we stay, for years, and keep getting the same results, like that crazy person that never learns from his mistakes and thinks if he keeps doing the same thing he will get a different result.

If we do train the Iraqi military to the necessary level of strength and proficiency, we might well find ourselves at some future date having to stand up to a Frankesteins monster of our own creation. But if that's what it takes to resolve this issue, so be it. Decades more of what is going on surely can't be any better. Yet, that is precisely what we are faced with, or tucking our tails and running. It's time for somebody to make that hard choice, but Bush and his Neo-Con Administration are too busy trying to sell us on blind faith. Fortuately, more people are opening their eyes every day.

Bob Roberts-A Film Relevant For Today

"The Path to 9/11" may have started quite a few years ago, and aside from the perpetrators themselves, there is ample blame to go around on both sides, on the left, on the right, and when you get right down to it, from various points 'twist and 'tween the extremes.

We might, as well, want to look at ourselves, at the haphazard and even artificial way we choose our leaders, one of the failings of a democracy, to be blunt.

In the 1992 film, "Bob Roberts", Tim Robbins takes a biting look at how the media promotes image over substance in the person of the right wing biker/folk singer turned politican who is the title character.

"Bob Roberts" started as a character skit Robbins performed on a mid nineteen eighties episode of "Saturday Night Live", in which Roberts was an obnoxous anti-smoking advocate (are there any other kind?), whom he then parlayed into this movie, which incidentally in one scene takes a jab at the series, which is presented as a copororate funded hypocritical commercial enterprise.

Surprisingly, he doesn't really portray the left in a flattering light. In the person of "Brickley Paiste" (portrayed by old friend Gore Vidal) , the incumbent liberal Senator whom Roberts has decided to run against for election to the Senate, we see a tired old man full of the usual self-serving liberal sound bites and bleeding heart rhetoric that Roberts despises, a well meaning sort who is rapidly becomming irrelevant in the dawning age of conservative populism.

But it is the charismatic Roberts who is the main focus, and about whom we know little, nor about whom we ever really learn much. To all intents and purposes, he is a media creation, an empty suit with no real substance. The son of nineteen sixties era hippie parents, he rebels, becoming a biker and eventually a conservative oriented folk singer, releasing albums which become wildly popular, such as "The Freewheeling Bob Roberts" and "The Times They Are Changing Back", obviously parodies of old Bob Dylan albums.

At his campaign appearrances, Roberts sings a good many of his songs, and they are quite good. Two that particularly stand out to me are "Complain"-which is a diatribe against liberal welfare "handout" programs to the poor and "lazy"-and "She's A Beautiful Girl" which he performs at a Pennsylvania state beauty contest.

So good in fact are these songs, which Robbins actually sings, and co-wrote with his brother, it is a shame that he refused to release a soundtrack album of the movies songs. He feared they would be seen out of context.

Roberts is running behind Paiste by ten percentage points until Paiste is filmed in the company of a sixteen year old volunteer campaign worker and is accussed of infidelity with the underrage girl. Despite his protestations that the girl was a friend of his granddaughter, and that he was merely accompanying the two of them home, he takes a hit in the polls, and for a while the two candidates are runing neck and neck.

Still, Roberts doesn't get a free ride. A radical underground reporter is on his trail, determined to dig up evidence that Roberts, as a board member of the anti-drug advocacy group "Broken Dove", along with his shady campaign manager, have been involved with the CIA in smuggling drugs in Central America while in the course of a war against leftist guerrillas-a sub-plot which is an obvious reference to the mid-eighties Iran-Contra scandals. There are also vaque suggestions that Roberts, as a Yale graduate, is a member of the ultra secret fraternal cult "Skull And Bones".

Due to all this, Roberts never establishes a firm lead over Paiste, and toward the end Paiste in fact starts to regain the lead. Suddenly, as Roberts is leaving a campaign appearrance at a Live comedy skit show- where an assistant pulls the plug when Roberts begins performing an obvious campaign song which had not been scheduled or approved-he is the victim of an assassiantion attempt apparently by the same underground reporter that had been feverishly and doggedly on his trail, and who, in what might be seen by some as prophetic, was an Arab American.

After this -and on the heels of the release of a new album, "Bob On Bob"- which occurs shortly before the election and leaves Roberts diasgnosed by his personal physician as permanently paralyzed from the waste down, he goes on to win the election.

As for the purported gunman, it is determined that he must have been set up to take the fall for Roberts' assault, as he was sufferring from cerebral palsy which afflicted his right hand to such an extent it made it imposible for him to have done the deed. Yet, some time after swearing that he would one day get Bob Roberts, he is murdered by a group of deranged and angry Roberts fans and supporters.

One of the final scenes portrays newly sworn in Pennsylvania Senator Bob Roberts, wheelchair bound, appearring at a Washington D.D. function, on stage and playing guitar and singing a song which is eerily reminiscent of Jim Morrison.

This might be, coming from ardent conspiracist Tim Robbins, a nod at the long held belief that Morrison faked his own death years before. If this is the case, it is appropriate for this movie, and especially for this one scene in particular, which, if you ever get a chance to watch the film, I encourage you to watch very closely, especially as the camera zooms in for a close-up of Roberts as he sings. It is then that the true character of Bob Roberts is finally revealed.

This is a great movie, whatever you might feel about ultra liberal Robbins and his wife Susan Sarandon, who also appears in the film as a vacuous local news reporter. In fact, this is one example of the many ways in which this movie is a work of genius. There is not just one local tv anchor crew interspersed during parts of the movie, but two from seperate stations, and they are all the same, engaging each one in the banal type of irrelevant banter and pretentous small talk we have all come to expect from local news outlets.

To that extent, the movie is as much a slam at the media as it is of politics and politicians. Done in documentary style, this was a shot across the bow at the then strong and still building conservative populist movement. Against the largely irrelevant and seemingly entitled attitude of the liberal oppossition, whom Robbins seems to recognize was understandably and quickly loosing favor. Against the self-serving pretentousness and hypocrisy not only of politicans, but the corporate media, and the dog and pony show they had turned the political process into. Nobody looks good in this film. Nobody is suppossed to look good in this film.

And that includes you and I, the voting public. Maybe especially so.

Aphrodite-Modern View Of A Still Relevant Goddess

This is a modern image of the goddess Aphrodite, by the artist Galilleo. Upon discovering it, I had to wonder how the hell she could have ever fallen out of favor. On the other hand, the realization is obvious that none of the ancient classical Greek depictions really did her true justice. In fact, she was no more or less beautiful than any of the other sculpted goddesses of the age, and they were all rather bland. I am not a big fan of ancient Greek art in general. This modern version, however, is a different matter. The artist who rendered this drawing, despite it’s somewhat comic book style layout, has an obvious affinity for the goddess.

If you are the kind who can easily achieve a semi-trance state, it would be a relatively simple matter to meditate upon the goddess, upon which you might be blessed with an image of Aphrodite that is equal to or even superior to this one. You might well be surprised by what you see. By who you see. Perhaps somebody you know, maybe even your wife or girlfriend-or maybe not.

Hopefully, you will not see an image similar to this one. If you do, it might be indicative of a serious problem in the way of relationships. It might be something you would want to work on.

If, on the other hand, your experiment is successful, you will have been gifted with a point of meditation which you can go back to, again and again. You might find yourself becoming more and more attached to the goddess, and find yourself turning more and more to her. Once you get to know her well, it would not be at all innappropriate to indulge in the ritual I have developed for the worship of and attunement with Aphrodite.

As for my original question as to how she could have ever fallen out of favor-when you stop to think about it, she never really did.

A Special Thanks To The Widow's Son-And A Wary Eye on Blogger Beta

Some of you might have noticed that Blogger now has an option which is in the Beta, or testing phase, and to which all blogs will soon be moved. You can, if you want, move there now, but be aware that all the bugs have not yet been ironed out. You also need to open a Google account, which seems fairly easy to do.

One of the problems with this version of Blogger seems to be a problem with posting comments. If you have tried posting comments to somebody's blog, and you find yourself unable to do so, and you haven't switched to Beta, there's a pretty good chance the other person has.

There are other issues here, but rather than go into them here, I will let you read about it from the opening page , from which you can take the tour of Blogger in Beta.

Speaking of links, I'd like to add a word of thanks to The Widows Son, curator of the blogs The Burning Taper and Sacred Fems, for turning me on to a little thing known as Tinyurl. If you have a problem like me with long assed links, give this link a visit. You can turn an excruciatingly long link into one with 24 characters or less, even if it is a more than one huindred character long link mixed with letters, numbers, and symbols.

You will be given a link to drag and drop to your browsers toolbar. Once you do this, all you have to do is go to the web-site on the page you want to link to, go up top the toolbar, click on the link for the Tinyurl that you dragged and dropped toyour toolbar, and you will automatically be given a "tiny url." It's a real time saver and nerve soother.

As for Blogger Beta, I might give it a whirl, though I don't really see the point, as all will soon be moved there. Just the same, it might be a good idea to go ahead and avail yourself of a Google account, and a G-Mail account when they become availiable. Right now the latter is by invitation only. Still, having as much of this at the ready as possible might head off any unforseen problems that might arise from the switch.

There are always unforeseen problems in life, and gods know that is certainly true of Blogger.

Hollywoodland-Where Nothing's As It Seems

Produced by Miramax Films and distributed by Focus Features, the movie Hollywoodland, directed by Allen Coulter, delves into the mystery of the strange death of George Reeves, the actor who played televisions Superman from the fall of 1952 through the spring of 1958 for a total of 104 episodes.

The death having been quickly ruled a suicide, there were still questions, and Reeves mother demanded answers to them. The film takes them up in the form of detective Louis Simo, played by Adrien Brody. Reeves himself is played by Ben Affleck, while his fiancee, Leonore Lemmon, is portrayed by Robin Tunny (formerly Veroica Donovan of "Prison Break"). Other characters of importance in the film include actress Toni Maddox (Diane Lane), with whom he had engaged in an affair, and who had been married to Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins), a studio mogul.

The film covers a lot of old territory that was all but forgotten over the years, such as Reeves tumultuos relationship with Lemmon, with whom he was rumored to have argued with openly in public.

Officially, Reeves was said to have been despondent over what he considoered the end of his career. The Superman series was over, and though he had grown to hate his identification with the character, it seems to have been a fact that he was so typecast by the role it was difficult, in fact all but impossible, for him to find work.

Plus, he was getting on in years. At 34 when the series stated shooting, Reeves was and is the oldest person to ever play the part. Though there were rumors of the shows return, Reeves himself did not look forward to such a prospect, and must have wondered how well suited he was for the immortal character at by then the age of 43.

He was particularly embitterred when he thought about his past. He had appearred in "Gone Withg The Wind" as one of Scarlett O'Hara's suitors, and had received critical acclaim for his work in 1942's "So Proudly We Hail". Afterwards, he had enlisted in the Army Air Force during World War II, and from there it seemed imposible to get his career back on track, despite having made short films for the war effort.

When he was offerred the role of Superman, he initially turned it down, as television was not seen as a viable entertainment medium. For whatever reason, he changed his mind and accepted the role, though never expected much to come of it. He was surprised when it became one of the biggest hits on television.

For some time, he revelled in the role, and accepted his obligations as a role model for children, taking it so seriously he stopped smoking and avoided appearring in public with any of his girlfriends.

How he came to be involved with Toni Mannix isn't exactly clear, but they seem to have been involved in various charitable projects. From there they became romantically entwined, which may have drawn the ire of husband Mannix and his associates.

Yet, there can be no doubt that Reeves identification as Superman was a serious hindrance to him finding serious work, and he started to resent it.

A case in point would be his 1956 appearrance on the old "I Love Lucy" show. In this epeisode, Lucy was competing with a neighbor over who could throw the best childrens party. The neighbor had arranged an impressive list of performers and guests, and so Lucy urged husband Ricky to ask "Superman" to attend Little Ricky's party. Unfortunately, she bragged to her neighbor about "Superman's" appearrance before it could be confirmed, later finding out that Superman could not be availiable. In a desperate attempt to save face, she donned a pair of tights and a cape and on the day of the party climbed out on the ledge, where she intended to make an appearrance as "Supergirl". Upon crawling out on the ledge, she found herself trapped, unable to get back inside.

Suddenly, as expectations, and tempers, were escalating in degree to the losing of patience and faith in the arrival of the promised guest, suddenly through another window bounded in "Superman". The superhero had saved the day. When he was informed by co-c0nspirator Ethel Mertz that Lucy was out on the ledge, and acertained that she was trapped, he then saved Lucy's hide.

Upon learning from Ricky Ricardo how long he had been married to the idiotic pea-brain he had just rescued, the hero quipped, "and they call me Superman".

And that is just the point of my retelling of the story. Indeed, they called him nothing but Superman, all through the show. There may have been some vaque reference to the fact that he was an actor, but nothing concrete. The name George Reeves was never mentioned on the show. As if that were not enough, neither did the name George Reeves appear on the credits, which merely listed the appearrance of Superman as licensed by and appearring courtesy of DC Comics.

And so it went. By the time the series ended, up until his death, Reeves had appearred in only one other significant film-"From Here To Eternity", in a role that was so minor it was easy for the false rumor to be circulated that his part had been cut off when a screening audience, upon seeign him, shouted, "it's Superman". It was a myth, but it grabbed hold of the poublic imagination, and helped to concretize the notion of Reeves despondency. It was just one of several such myths to be circulated.

At any rate, the fact of his depression was probably well grounded, and may have been worsened by an auto accident in which he sufferred a concussion some months prior to his death. There was also a heavy driking habit. For the two months prior to his death, Reeves liquor bill approximated a staggerring 3500 dollars a month, in 2005 dolars.

He died on the night of a party, from which he excused himself to go to bed. His blood alcohol level was three times what would now be considered the legal limit for alcohol intoxicaion. It seemed a clear cut case of suicide. Yet, there were strange circumstances.

Though he had been shot in the head, the gun lay on the bed betwen his feet. Plus, there were two bullit holes in the floor. Additionally, there was shell casing under his body. Finally, the gun was devoid of prints, of either Reeves or anyone else.

I tend to believe Reeves killed himself, despite these understandably suspicous circumstances. Taken one at a time-

Leonore Lemmon herself took credit for the bulets in the floor, claiming she had been fooling around with the gun some weeks prior to this. If it is true that the two of them fought in public, this is easily explained as a case of frayed tempers, and a display of threatening intimidation on her part.

The gun had been heavily oiled, and according to police a newly and heavily oiled gun will not take or hold prints.

The bullet casing under his bed may mean nothing of any significance.

That brings us to the positioning of the gun between his feet on the bed. This is easily explainable if he were sitting upright, yet fully on the bed, at the time he took his own life. The impact would have knocked him backward, and at the same time the recoil from the gun may have sent it flying in the oppossite direction, thus landing at the pisiton at which it was found. In order to hold a gun in such a position, it would be difficult to maintain that strong a grip on it, thus the recoil effect.

Of course, it is possible that he was killed by Lemmon, or by hired thugs in the employ of Mannix or one of his associates, or by some long rumored shadowy mob connection, angered at yet a different affair that has never been substantiated.

It does sem odd though that this would occur during the night of a party at which there were at least four different people yet present, despite Reeves having retired to bed.

This movie might be well worth a look, as a kind of film noir set in the fifties, and as a kind of nod to the old Micky Spillane type mystery/crime drama that was prevalent during the time. And, while I don't dispute that the mysterious circumstances of Reeves death do indeed warrant more attention than perhaps they were given at the time, I think for the most part it is safe to conclude that Reeves did more than likely kill himself-aided and abbetted by the promising illussons and, all too often, heart wrenching betrayal of that promise that is still Hollywoodland.

President Bush Assassinated

President Bush has just been assassinated by a sniper outside a hotel in Chicago.

That, at any rate, is the premise of a movie, "Death Of A President", directed by Gabrielle Range, and recently unveiled at The Toronto Film Festival. The movie deals more with the aftermath of the event, which takes place in October of 2007 during the height of a massive anti-war demonstration.

It has already drawn the ire of such stalwart Republican conservative supporters as blogger Matthw Drudge of The Drudge Report, and Rush Limbaugh, who claims the films sole purpose is to move forward the anti-Bush agenda.

"Isn't it against the law to talk about killing a President"?, Limbaugh railed, even going so far as to question the morality and integrity of anyone that would sanction such a work.

This would include apparrently anyone that might so much as see the film, which the White House said they would not dignify with a response.

All of these criticisms were brushed aside by Director Grange:

In a release, director Range said, "We're thrilled to be screening the film at Toronto. It's a striking premise which may be seen as highly controversial. But it's a serious film which I hope will open up the debate on where current U.S. foreign and domestic policies are taking us."

To learn more, click on the link in the post title. As for me, though I haven't seen the film, I'll still rate it. I give it two great big balls.

Environmental Strategies

The Conecticutt Senate race has caused a division of sorts among formerly Democratic stalwarts among the environmental movement, as described in a recent aticle in Grist

Joe Liebermann, who is currently running ahead of Democratic nominee Ned Lamont by anywhere from two to ten percentage points-depending on the poll-just received a much needed boost by way of the Leaque of Conservation Voters. Tony Masserro, Leaque Vice-President of Political Affairs, announced the endorsement.

David Willett, spokesperson for The Sierra Club, has as yet to make an endorsement in the Connecticutt Senate race, but insists that party politics is not nor will be a factor. The environmental group has already drawn ire over this stated policy by way of it’s endorsement of Republican Senator Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island, notably from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who warns that-

"If the Democrats gain only five rather than six Senate seats this November, Sen. James Inhofe [R-Okla.], who says that global warming is 'the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,' will remain in his current position as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. And if that happens, the Sierra Club may well bear some of the responsibility,"

Still, Wilett insists that those who vote favorably for environmental causes should be rewarded, despite party affiliation. As such, the group stands by Chaffee, as enumerated by Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope. The Leaque of Conservation Voters, meanwhile, seems just as steadfast in it’s support of Liebermann, whose environmental record is indeed impressive.

He co-sponsored, with Senator John McCain, the Climate Stewardship Act of 2003, and reintroduced the bill in 2005, which he has vowed to continue to push.What it does is propose a “cap and trade” program for greenhouse gases. It would impose limitations on emissions and allow companies to meet that limit by buying and selling the right to pollute.

He also helped draft the 1990 Clean Air Act. And just last year he worked on a bi-partisan basis to enact the Vehicle And Fuel Choices for American Security Act, which would reduce U.S. oil consumption by 10 million barrells a day in the next twenty five years.

Overall, the Leaque Of Conservation Voters has rated three term Senator Joe Liebermanns pro-environmental Senate voting record at 86%.

Still, though Liebermanns overall environmental record has been lauded as progressive, there are some areas of complaint. According to Lamont, one cause for concern is Liebermanns support of the recent Energy Bill –

"which features billions in subsidies to big oil and does little for conservation and energy efficiency."

Adam Warbach, former President of The Sierra Club, has also raised the Senators support of the Iraqi War as an issue-

"Lieberman's party should be irrelevant if you're an environmental-issue voter. The big question is whether you believe the Iraq war is an 'environmental' issue. I do. For me, the Iraq war is a travesty -- ecological and otherwise -- that far outweighs Lieberman's stellar environmental record."

Defending the Connecticutt Senators’ all around environmental record, Don Gerstein, Liebermann’s Communications Director, has pointed out that-

"Without him, climate politics changes. The whole landscape of environmental policy changes. ... Joe Lieberman has been at the forefront of pretty much every effort to block the administration's rollbacks of environmental standards."

It has also been pointed out that Lamont has no environmental record, nor does he have the bi-partisan standing or Liebermans experience as a leader on environmental causes, specifically on Senate committees, though it is generally conceeded that he would vote the Democratic party line on environmental, as well as other, issues. Moreover, it is generally felt that Liebermanns victory would require his working to attract not only independent voters, but Republicans, who would be inclined to vote for the three Republicans running for the House Of Representatives, possibly assurrnig the Republicans of a victory in one, two, or possibly all three of these races This could also result in the Republicans maintaining control of the House of Representatives, as pointed out in The New York Times. Without Liebermann, all three Republican seats are in danger, including the one held by current Representative Christopher Shays, perhaps the better known of the three.

Once you consider this factor, it becomes easier to understand the Republican position in all but endorsing Liebermanns independent run for the Senate, and the uncomfortable position it puts his former Democratic allies in, including Senior Connecticutt Democratic Senator Chris Dodd. He has endorsed Lamont, and encouraged Liebermann to drop out of the race, as has a host of other Democratic Senate colleaques.

Liebermann seems intent on staying in the race, on holding his ground-and seat. It is easy for me to appreciate the Leques and Sierra Clubs relative positions. After all, what good is it to promote environmental causes among Republican members if a pro-environmntal voting record is outright disregarded due to mere party affiliation? These groups seem to have learned the hard lessons of various civil rights groups, who were by the nineteen seventies all but written off by the Republican Party.

Sure, you can make the case that a Senator or Congressman should vote their conscience, first and foremost. That, of course, is a perfect world scenario. A perfect world, it should be pointed out, is one in which there are no problems. No greed, no corruption, no discrimination-and no pollution. Not the world we live in, it seems.

To be sure, these endorsements are gambles, ones that are possibly, and hopefully, worthwhile. If, however, it causes the Republicans to maintain control of the Senate-and the House-it might go down as the most irresponsible political crap shoot in history. If so, the only environmental changes you can look forward to will be the house cleaning from the top at The Sierra Club and The Leaque of Conservation Voters.

As for the Republican strategy in Connecticutt, if it is successful, it might well make Joe Liebermann among the most powerful, influential-and despised-Senator in U.S. history

Flight 9151-The Dollar Figures

The shock and grief over Flight 9151 has already started to give way to recriminations, and to outright lunacy. And leave it to talk radio to jump to the attack. Not against the airlines, or the airport, or the federal avaiation people, but against lawyers.

It seems a number of law firms have posted advertisements in the Lexington Herald Leader. Or make that had posted. Two of the firms have since voluntarily pulled the ads, the other remaining one was dropped by the Herald Leader.

One of these firms was The Johnson Law Offices. Another was Krilec And Krilec Attorneys-At-Law. They in effect paid for quarter page ads, in one case a full page ad, offerring their services to the survivors of individuals killed in the air disaster.

Talk radio almost immediately went on the attack, and the local news chanels followed up on the flurry of outraged phone calls from listeners angry at the insensitivity and opportunism evidenced by the firms.

Not having heard the radio shows in question, I still have no doubt that these calls were invited by the hosts who doubtless went into the predictable conservative schpiel about greedy ambulance chasing attorneys out to make a quick multi-million dollar settlement off of the grief of the surviving family members by way of class action lawsuit.

What I do doubt seriously is that the radio talk show hosts had the family members welfare in mind so much as the welfare of the airlines and the airport. Conservative talk show hosts seem to all be of a single mind when it comes to tort attorneys and lawsuits. They seldom see one that is justified, and I doubt that this will be one of the few exceptions to that rule. Such lawsuits are bad for society, and for business, results in higher prices, more stringent regulations, and then more higher prices, and lay-offs, and on and on. If you're victimized, well, we feel your pain, but we don't want to intrude on your grief, hopefuly you will pull your self up by your boot straps, just trust in God, and by the way, fuck you.

Okay, sure, I'm as well wary of attorneys and their tactics, I think too they can go too far and do more harm than good, and are really out to make a quick buck and a name of themselves. But, on the other hand, these particular firms so far as I know did not approach the families directly. Sure, it may seem innappropriate and it certainly might be considered in bad taste.

ComAir, on the other hand, has also approached the family members, with a settlement offer of 25,000 dollars. Assumming that is 25,000 dollars per victim, that would amount to a total of 1,250,000 dollars divided up equally among next of kin or beneficiary.

The bodies have not even been buried yet.

To be fair, ComAir might not be even at fault. In fact, I would suggest the major fault lies with the airport, for not making sure the runways were adequately marked in the aftermath of renovation, which did seem to cause the pilot some confusion.

The major villain, on the other hand, may actually be the government. There were suppossed to be two Air Traffic Controllers on duty. There was only one. As a cost cutting measure, staff was reduced during non-peak hours, as it is assummed the new high-tech equipment is adequate to compensate. In at least this cae, of course, it wasn't.

Yet Air Traffic Controllers have for years complained that they are overstaffed, and overworked, to seemingly no avail.

This all seems to be yet another example of empty suits deciding what is necessary in the way of staffing personnel for jobs they have never in their lives performed and have no clue about.

The government, ComAir, and Lexington Bluegrass Airport need to come together with the families-by way of legal representation-and do what's right. That 1,250,000 dollar figure I arrived at might well be an appropriate sum. Not as a total, but per surviving family member and/or beneficiaries.

Then, they need to do what's right and hire the proper amout of Controllers, and take whatever other steps are necessary to prevent a repetition of this tragedy. If not, it will eventually happen again. And again. And again.

Some lawyers and the suits they file are indeed unnecessary and innapropriate, flagrantly obvious examples of greed and exploitation. If a lawsuit is filed in this case, this would not be one such example. In fact, this might be a perfect example of why people have the right to file their grievances with the courts. Nothing is more likely to make a business or government agency reform it's practices than by being hit hard and punished where it hurts, be that in the court of public opinion, or in it's bank account.

Public Access For Now

UPDATE: The crisis has passed. Yep, it was just the modem, and is fixed now. My nerves are still frayed, I think maybe I'm sufferring from some weird kind of post traumatic stress symdrome. But this too shall pass.

In the meantime I guess I should offer thanks to the appropriate deity. Hephaestos, I guess, god of craftsmen. Or I guess I should mainly thank the fine folks at Design And Service for fixing the problem in just under a days time, desite the fact that I was only one of many with the same problem due to the same storm, resulting in lightning through the phone line wreaking havoc on mine and others modems.

Almost like Zeus throwing a tantrum. Yeah, I know, I'm rambling. But I know, it could have been a lot worse. I'm just not one of those kind of people that can think of how it good it feels to get your finger out of a door that's been shut on it. I'm more the kind of person who has to calm his nerves by concentrating aimlessly on inconsequential details and irrelevant, non-related events. Then, I have to sleep two or three hours. Then, I have to put it behind me. And I will.

But I'm still rambling, ain't I?




I'm posting this from my neighborhood library. Two nights ago, lightning came through my phone line and evidently knocked out my modem. The good news seems to be, for now, everything else is working fine. But until I do get it fixed, you won't be hearing from me as much. If it is more than just the modem you might not be hearing much from me for quite some time to come. Hopefully, it will be fixed in the next day or two, at which point things will be hopefully back to normal. Except that I will never again leave my phone line in the wall when I am gone, and from now on when a storm starts the computer is being turned off as well as the line coming out of the wall jack.

On the off chance it is more than the modem, I might be posting from my local library for some time to come, which means maybe once a week, twice at the most. I tell you this just as a way of letting you know if I dont answer your comments right away, this is the reason for it.

In the meantime, I have added a new link, "The Tao Of Masonry" look it up in the links section beginning with "Tao". I have also deleted a link, which has evidently decided to no longer be a blog and has changed instead to an adult porn advertisement site. I don't know what's up with that, but as it is no longer a blog I removed it. I won't mention the former name of the blog.

Finally, you will not see me but very seldom on your blogs while this situation remains current as unfortunately time will not permit it. But hopefully things will be back to normal sooner rather than later.

Wish me luck.

P.S.-I did an update on Flight 5191 on the original post if any are interested, just two or three posts down from here.

Liquid Beauty

The original story as follows was written by the founder-acarya of The International Society For Khrishna Conscousness (ISKCON), His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Praphupada. Those purists among you will find the link to the original Liquid Beauty, actually a retelling by a devotee of the Hindu Vaishnaiva sect.

I prefer to tell my own version of it, so here goes:

Once upon a time, a beautiful woman who happenned to be very devout found herself the object of unwanted attention. From the time she was a young girl, she had multiple proposals of marriage, and had since lost track of the times she had been pursued. Their faces all blended into one giant lustful leer that made it impossible to distinquish one from the other.

As impossible as it was to believe save to those who knew her well, she was at the age of twenty five still a virgin. She was determined to keep her virginity until she found a man suitable for marriage. This was not out of some religous compunction so much as it was just from a sense of self-esteem. Still, as time went on she found herself becomming more and more spiritual. It became a great comfort to her.

One night, as she went about her evening meditations, she felt the power ofthe goddess enveloping her, and she could almost hear her speak out to her, "you will be betrayed by the one man outside your family you trust above all others".

Immediately she thought of Greg, her workmate and a close friend who had been a great help to her both on and off the job, in various ways. Actually, she didn't believe this sudden feeling, but she couldn't shake it, and had trouble sleeping that night.

About a week later, she noticed that Greg seemed to have changed. He became much more attentive, and was suddenly around her all the time at work, and soon started calling three or four times a day. She knew then her feelings were right, and so she put in her two weeks notice, and after a very uncomfortable two weeks left her job. She had years earlier inherited a great amount of money, and so had no need of work as a means of supporting herself. Still, she was distressed as this job had been a chosen path to a career she had longed dreamed of. But it had to be done, she realized.

Still, she was resentful. Why should she have to quit her job on account of a man who turned out to be like all others after all? Yet, he had previously been such a good friend. What had happenned to him? She looked at herself in the mirror, and realized that her beauty was to her a curse. Why couldn't she have just been beautiful? Did she have to be ravishingly so? And was she really all that beautiful? She couldn't see it herself.

As these thoughts tormented her, Greg called, and begged her to see him. He declared his love for her and pleaded, his voice sounding as though he were near to tears. In fact, he seemed to have been crying. Reluctantly, she agreed to see him.

When he arrived at her doorstep, he repeated his declarations of love, and asked for her hand in marriage. She asked him why her, whereupon he responded that his previous engagement had been broken off, and he came to realize then that it was her he loved the whole time. And then he spilled it.

"You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life, more beautiful than even any model or actress I have ever seen, by far."

Like a flash, it occurred to her what to do, and what to say.

"I'll tell you what", she said. "Give me one month to think about it, and I'll let you know. In the meantime, don't come around me, don't call me, don't get anywhere near me. One month. Do you think you are strong enough to handle that? Because if you are not, you certainly ain't the man I'm looking for."

Reluctantly, Greg agreed with this demand, and went on his way. Starting the next day, Darla purchased a months supply of laxatives and other purgatives, and all but stopped eating. In addition, she acquired a series of large pots. She would need at least four of them.

She lived over the course of the next month on nothing but bread and water and a little fruit here and there, but as little as possible. Nor did she use any kind of vitamin or mineral supplement to make up the loss of all the essential nutrients. She quickly became severely ill, and weak. Within two weeks time, she was throwing up what little she did eat. It seemed as though her body was beginning to turn on itself and consume itself, which in addition to the bread and water she quickly passed.

In addition, she caught a cold, and her nose was constantly running.

All of this she kept. He excrement, her urine, her vomit, and her mucous, each one in a sperate jar until, once they were all filled, she found another one in which she mixed all the bodily substances together.

Finally, a month passed, and Greg did not waste a second as he arrived at her door. He knocked impatiently, and when Darla opened the door, he obviously did not recognize the pathetic wretch of a creature that stood before him. She had wasted away to all but skin and bones, her cheekbones were hollow and her eyes were sunk in way back in the sockets. She had sores that seemed to be running with pus on her face, and her once beautiful complexion was ashen, a sickly mixture of white and grey. She was wrinkled and baggy and dry from dehydration. The light clothes that she wore seemed almost to weigh her down, as they now revealed a skeletal frame upon which the skin clung tenuously.

She was a living horror, a veritable manifestation of walking death. Yet, Greg seemed not to notice. In his eagerness, he had only one thought on his mind.

"Where's Darla?", he asked expectantly, barely able to hide his hopeful yet wary desires.

"I am Darla", she said incredulously. It was an effort to her by now to even be able to speak, to say nothing of standing long enough to answer the door. Greg took a good long look at the woman who now seemed to be on the verge of collapse, if not on death's door. Yet, as horrible as it seemed, he could soon tell that this was indeed Darla.

"What happenned to you?", he demanded in shocked amazement.

"I wanted you to see me for what I really am", she explained. "Then, I want you to see what it is you have fallen in love with. I want you to see my beauty. I still have it, though not on me right now. Come with me."

"Darla, what the hell are you talking about", he demanded. But he followed along behind her, until she made her way to the utility room, upon which he noticed for the first time the stench that seemed to permate the house. She stood now in front of a series of large jars without lids.

"There is my beauty", she explained, "distilled down to it's essence."

He looked into the jars filled with the vile collection of excrement, urine, mucous,vomit, and the one that was a mixture of all these substances, and began gagging. He looked. His expression of horrified revulsion spoke volumes.

"So do you still want to marry me?", she asked.

"No, not any more", he confessed. "You've made your point. I have been a real idiot."

"What do you mean?", Darla asked. "Do you mean that you understand now that beauty is only skin deep, and that it is all in the eye of the beholder, that it is all an illussion based on gross material lust?"

"No", he replied. "I mean because I see now that you are one crazy bitch."

ComAir Flight #1591

Update: I thought it might be appropriate to point out that evidently the reason for the mishap had to do with the revamping of the airport and the runways. It proved confusing to the pilot, who evidently was not that used to the Lexington Bluegrass Airport, though he had been there a small number of times.

But what really sealed the fate of the flight was that there was only one air traffic controller on duty at the time of the incident. There should have been two. The pilot of flight 9151 had been cleared for take-off on the correct runway, but had veered onto the shorter one, and this was not caught by the one on-duty controller who had his hands full. He had turned to deal with another plane when 9151 took off.

Why was there only one air traffic controller when there should have been two? Was it another example of cost-cutting, or had the second on duty controller walked off his post due to illness or for a break, or whatever? I don't know. It still isn't clear.

Governor Fletcher, has vowed that the problem that caused the confusion will be fixed, but I'm not sure what he thinks he can do about it. Someone said something about erecting barriers of some sort, but I don't see how that is feasible, seeing as how the two runways in question seem to intersect. Of course, I guess the points of intersection could be left open.

Whatever, I'm sure the problem will eventually be addressed, hopefully in a satisfactory manner, by someone suppossedly more intelligent than myself.




This morning, Sunday, at about 6:07 a.m., a plane, Flight #5191, bound for Atlanta from Lexington's Bluegrass Airport crashed almost immediately upon take off and, filled with fuel, burst into flames. Out of fifty people reported to be on board, there is of now only one survivor, evidently the co-pilot, who was last listed as being in critical condition at an area hospital. According to the Department of Homeland Security, there is no suspicion of terrorism.

What seems to have happenned is, the pilot, an employee of ComAir for only about seven years and a pilot since 2002, went down the wrong runway. The major runway, at a length of a little over seven thousand feet, intersected with another runway of half that distance, and somehow he inadverdently veered onto the shorter runway. By the time he took off, the landing gear, still disengaged, clipped a series of trees, which caused the plane to come crashing into the field of a neighboring farm, causing no injuries or property damage to buildings, plants, or livestock.

With the exception for now of the co-pilot, however, all 47 pasengers and other two crew members, including the captain, were probably killed instantaneously, by the impact and explosion of the jet fuel, which according to some who heard it from a distance sounded much like a clap of thunder. One area resident spoke of his windows vibrating.

It is the second worse aviation disaster in Kentucky's history. The worse was in the late nineteen sixties, when a plane leaving Northern Kentuckys Greater Cincinati Airport crashed, killing 69 of 82 people on board.

I am suspecting that possibly the pilot mght have been drunk, or tired and/or overstressed through overwork, or maybe a combination of similar factors. Bluegrass Airport was not unfamiliar to him, so this would seem to be a rational enough explanation. I just wonder if he or the co-pilot caught the mistake in just enough time to react in such a way as to make matters worse.

What I wonder even more is if this will indeed turn out to be a consequence of airlines cutting costs by cutting back on employees and demanding more time from those they have. It will be interesting to find out the amount of flight hours logged by this particular pilot.

If my suspicions are correct, this could lead to an investigation and review of hours logged by other pilots of this particular airline, and maybe others as well. It could also lead to a class action lawsuit which, if my suspicions are correct, would not in this case be innapropriate.

Ray Nagin-New Orleans Private Living Voodoo Doll

When Ray Nagin first ran for re-election in the aftermath of the Katrina disaster, I told somebody the next time New Orleans was faced with the prospect of having to evacuate due to an approaching hurricane, Ray Nagin would probably be driving one of the buses.

As is more often the case than I would like to admit, I was wrong. Nagin easily won re-election in a run-off election over Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, brother of Senator Mary Landrieu.

In a way I was glad. Nagin is a man of the people, having risen from the ranks of lowly New Orleans bus driver to the status of mayor of what was then the 27th largest city of the United States. Now, of course, New Orleans is barely a third of it's original size in population, while a great lot of it's heaviest hit areas, most especially those areas that were predominantly or to all intents and purposes totally black, are still in ruins. Decayed human remains were still being found months after the tragedy, though it never rose to the level of the ten thousand that Nagin had initialy predicted.

Nagins on-the-job training seems to have left him in a position in which he was in well over his head before the flood waters ever hit, and some might assert that he still is. And unfortunately, he has an unfortunate tendency to say things he shouldn't say. In some cases, his explanations and excuses only makes matters worse.

The best example of this would be at a speech in which he declared that God was angry at the US for the war in Iraq, of which, Nagin said, God would not approve. He was also, he went on to insist, angry at black Americans for not taking care of themselves and each other.

But, he went on to say that New Orleans was a chocolate city. That is just the way it is. And New Orleans would be a chocolate city at the end of the day.

Of course this caused a furor, and so he explained that by his definition chocolate is a mixture of cocoa and milk, which when applied together you have "a delicous drink."

Well, Nagin still went on to win re-election, though in all honesty he bears a significant part of the blame for the chain of events that left New Orleans unprepared for the disaster and it's aftermath. Now, a hurricane is projected to be on it's path to the Gulf Coast, and the first projections have it hitting landfall anywhere from Southeast Louisiana to Mississippi.

One can only hope he is up to the task, but he is being watched, his every movement and utterrance scrutinized. Such as this recent gem given over the course of a recent interview, in response to criticisms of the slowness of the pace of the recovery and rebuilding efforts of the more heavily damaged New Orleans neighborhoods.

To paraphrase him: "They shouldn't be too quick to criticize, after five years they still haven't fixed the hole in New York City."

Naturally, he has been criticized for this remark, though it so happens he is correct. He should have of course refrained from using the 9/11 terror attacks as a defense, out of sympathy for the family of the victims, yes, but there is an even better reason. And that is, he had a far better target he could have used if he had just thought about it. I am talking here about what has become derisively known as "The Big Dig".

How long has it been now, twenty years or more, and how many billions of dollars, for this mammoth pork barrell waste of tax payers money that was finally ended by the auspices of Senator John McCain when it finally seemed obvious that this was a permanent make work fiasco?

As is so often the case, the projections were heinously short-sighted, both as to funding and the targeted date for the completion of the project. Nor has it yet been completed, and in fact so shoddy was the construction, a part of it collapsed, killing people in one automobile.

Still, until McCain finally said enough is enough, federal money was poured into this project that was far out of proportion to it's value to the nation outside the immediate environs of Boston, as well as out of proportion to the tax revenues generated by the state of Massachusetts. It was money that was considered by Kennedy, Kerry, and other Massachusetts politicians-to say nothing of the construction company involved in the project-as sacrosanct an entitlement as Social Security.

And due to cutting costs and the utilization of second rate at best materials, now lives have been lost. Yet, this would doubtless have gone on for no telling how long.

This of course is not the only example, it is just the most obviously egregious one. There are others. When you add up the roads and bridges to nowhere, the countless pork barrell spending projects that amount to little if any value in way too many cases to anybody outside of the politicians who support them as a means of buying votes, you have to wonder just how it is Ray Nagin, a simple humble politiican from a working class background, has become such an object of ire.

The answer, to my way of thinking, once you look past the part where he does honestly bear a fair share of the blame is that, quite simply, he has stood in the way of the predatory land speculators who would, if they had their way, turn New Orleans into just another temporary seasonal playground for the rich and the upper middle classes. A land of parks, rides, condominiums, office dwellings, casinos, and a few restaurants that might strive to maintain the cities original character, at least on the surface.

The people who dream these dreams might honestly in some cases consider them worthy, but it's time top wake up. The dream does not belong to them. They should find another one. As I said before in about a month long rant where for a period I talked of almost nothing else but New Orleans, the insurance companies should pony up, and stop looking for every hidden clause they can dig out of the fine print, or invent, to keep from making good on legitimate claims.

And, by the way, when they do this, they should not be allowed to pass the cost on to the rest of us.

But the worse part if, this never had to happen. For a relatively small amount of money, the disaster would have not been a third as bad as it turned out being. Nowhere near it. But, the federal governemnt just wouldn't pony up the two or three billion dollars necessary to shore up the levies. The city of New Orleans as well bears some part of the blame for not being better prepared to insure evacuation, and for that matter for not insuring that the pumps which could have lessenned the degree of flooding were actually functional. Nagin himself bars a part of this blame for not being more pro-active in this regard.

But, what is done is done. The people of New Orleans, and the nation, should say, never again. No more billions of dollars for pork barrell projects of dubious value at best, when legitimate needs are refused funding, for whatever reason, be they political partisanship, corruption, negligence, or simple bureacratic stupidity.

Ane we should never forget who bears the greatest burden of blame for this disaster. Not Nagin, the city, or the state of Louisiana, though their share is certainly considerable and perhaps understated to a degree. But the chief burden rests on the federal government, who refused the necessary funding, and stood paralyzed-some might say uncaring, or even hopeful for catastrophe-while a city lanquished in misery and desperation.

New Orleans should rebuild, bigger and better than ever, while no expense is spared to pevent another such catastrophe. But, it should not be a soulless vacation city of tourists and temporary vacationers served by an assortment of temporary and seasonal employees with immigrant work permits, in the midst of a flurry of construction courtesy of federal and state government contracts to the likes of Halliburton.

It should remain the city of African Americans and voodoo practitioners, and jazz and blues, and world class cuisine, and Mardi Gras-real Mardi Gras, not the commercialized, plastic, bubble gum variety envisioned by developers and speculators. Yet, a city that is warmly welcoming, to all, a genuine city with soul, and a history that should never be permitted to pass away.

Hopefully, the city will indeed rise better than it ever was in those areas where it cried out for improvement, in job opportunities and hope for it's traditional residents, a city that will mark an end to the corruption that has plaqued it throughout the past decades from the time of the Carollas, Marcellos and Longs.

Still, at the end of the day, it should indeed remain a chocolate city, and, for good or for ill-yes, Messrs. Bush and Cheney, a DemocraticCity.

World Trade Center Memorial - A Few Words For What They're Worth

One day, I’d like to go to New York City, where among the sites I would definitely have on my must see list would be the hopefully by then completed World Trade Center memorial. I wonder what it might look like, when that day finally arrives, and it is completed, and open and availiable to the public. Having a pretty good general grasp of all the ideas that have been presented, I can imagine myself in some hopefully not too distant future, gazing up at a memorial plaque:

ON THIS SITE OF WHAT WAS THE WORLD TRADE CENTER

KNOWN COLLOQUIALLY AS THE TWIN TOWERS

ON SEPTEMBER 11^TH

THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS

AND A NUMBER OF VISITORS FROM

OTHER NATIONS

LOST THEIR LIVES

IN AN ACT OF SAVAGE BARBARISM

FOUNDED ON HATRED

AND BASED IN THE DARKNESS

OF THE VILEST DEPTHS OF HUMAN

VITRIOLE AND DESPAIR

YET THOUGH DEATH AND DESTRUCTION

BEGATS HEARTACHE AND SUFFERRING

THE DARKNESS WILL NEVER

PREVAIL OVER THE LIGHT

AND THE LIGHT NOW SHALL SHINE AS A

TESTAMENT

TO HUMAN VALOR AND THE

UNQUENCHABLE STRENGTH

OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT

THEIR SACRIFICE SHALL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN

BUT

IT WASN’T ANY WORSE THAN WHAT

HITLER DID TO THE JEWS

IT WASN’T ANY WORSE

THAN WHAT AMERICA

DID TO THE NATIVE AMERICANS

IT WAS NO WORSE THAN WHAT

THE AMERICAN SOUTH

DID TO THE AFRICANS

AMD IT ISN’T ANY WORSE THAN WHAT

AMERICANS, EUROPE, AND ZIONISTS

HAVE DONE TO THE MUSLIMS AND TO ARABS

THROUGHOUT THE LAST CENTURY

THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST

SO THOUGH IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE

AMERICA

AND HER PEOPLE

DESIRE THIS TRIBUTE

FOR THE TRAGEDY THEY HAVE

ENDURED

FROM WHICH THEY

BRAVELY STRIVE TO

RECOVER

THEY SHOULD NEVER IMAGINE

THAT THEY ARE ALONE

NOR EVER FORGET

THE OTHERS

FROM ALL NATIONS

FROM ALL TIMES

WHO HAVE SUFFERRED AS

GREATLY

OR EVEN MORE

LET THIS MEMORIAL THEN

NOT BE HELD AS A

TESTAMENT

TO ONE PERIOD OF SUFFERRING

BUT TO THE SUFFERRING OF ALL

MANKIND

OF ALL RACES

ALL CREEDS

ALL COLORS

THE WORLD STOOD BY

AMERICA

IN ITS DARKEST HOUR

OF NEED

SUFFERRING

THEREFORE LET THE WORLD

STAND HERE TOGETHER

THIS DAY

LET THE WORLD SHINE HERE AS

ONE WORLD

UNITED

Now I’m sure the sarcasm I intended here will probably be lost on some people, and there are some who will think this is for the most part appropriate and desirable. If you do, I doubt there is any thing I can say to convince you otherwise. With some tinkering, my words, or other similar such sentiments, could well end up at the site. To which I have only one question-

WHY?

The Quality Of Life

The Pro-Life movement is gearing itself up to show it's true colors, and that is looking to be pretty black. You would think that the new technique just recently announced to enable harvesting of stem cells without destroying the embryo from which they are derived would be met with varying degrees of relief, and joy.

Before, the retrieval of stem cells required the destruction of the embryo, which had the Pro-Life movement up in arms, and still does, and has been a mainstay of Republican Party politics.

Now, a method has been advanced which, if proven successful, will make it possible to derive these cells at an earlier stage of embronic cell division. Here follows a description from yesterdays New York Times article:

The new technique would be performed on a two-day-old embryo, after the
fertilized egg has divided into eight cells, known as blastomeres. In
fertility clinics, where the embryo is available outside the woman in
the normal course of in vitro fertilization, one of these blastomeres
can be removed for diagnostic tests, like for Down syndrome.

In other words, this is already being done as a method of diagnosing potential medical problems based on genetic evaluation. It just so happens that this technique, which has demonstrated no adverse effects on any in vitrio children produced from these embryos as a result of the tests, has been found to enable the production of stem cells, as well as providing the necessary medical data.

It is to be expected that this would not soothe the objections of the Catholic Church. No surprises will be noted when you consider the following lunacy from The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Richard Doerflinger, deputy director for pro-life activities at the
conference of bishops, said the church opposed in vitro fertilization
because of the high death rate of embryos in clinics and because
divorcing procreation from the act of love made the embryo seem “more a
product of manufacture than a gift.”

Helllooooo-one persons gift might be another persons curse if it is unwanted, but how often is that the case of a couple that desperately deires to have a child, yet can't do so without in vitrio fertilization. Out of all the children born by this method, what percentage of them were unwanted? What percentage of them become so horrified at the prospect of raising a child, or just the thought of going through pregancy or childbirth, or concern for the financial obligations or other responsibilities, that they run out and get an abortion?

And what business is it of theirs to begin with to interject their spiritual beliefs in a political debate? When did they become the arbitrers of decisions to be made by non-Catholics? This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder how the Catholic Church ever lasted two thusand years, but of course the answer to that would be their dictatorial exertion of political power they are evidently determined to regain.

Unfortunately, they have found allies in other religous Christian denominations, when it comes to such issues as abortion. On this matter, however, the degree of cooperation with the Vatican has been tenuous at best. Seventy percent of the American people, at least, are in favor of this research, and this by the way crosses both political and religous lines.

But if statements from Republican Party spokespersons of the last couple of days  are  any indication,  the will of the people  is at least in this regard an inconvenient hurdle to somehow be overcome by way of the usual political double talk.

Take this, for example, from White House spokewoman Emily Lawrimore:

 But Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman, suggested that the new
procedure would not satisfy the objections of Mr. Bush, who vetoed
legislation in July that would have expanded federally financed
embryonic stem cell research. Though Ms. Lawrimore called it
encouraging that scientists were moving away from destroying embryos,
she said: “Any use of human embryos for research purposes raises
serious ethical questions. This technique does not resolve those
concerns.”

In other words, there is still a slight risk of damage to the embryo, or it's accidental destruction, if there were to be a mishap, for example, though you would have to imagine the odds of this are slight. Another objection that was raised by a spokesman for Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) was that even by utilizing this technique at an earlier stage, you would be creating a twin of the embryo which would then be destroyed.

To which Dr. Robert Lanza, vice president of Advanced Cell Technology and leader of the research team that developed the technique, had this to say:

Dr. Lanza said, however, that twinning is a phenomenon that occurs at a
later stage of embryonic development and that there was no evidence
that a single blastomere could develop into a person.

So it looks as though the Republican Party is circling the wagons, and I stand by my own earlier statements on the subject. This has little to do if anything at all with protecting the "life" of embryos, and probably very much everything to do with protecting pharmaceutical industry profits.

Of course, coming out publicly in favor of the suppossed constitutional right of pharmaceutical giants to make billions of dolars in profits off of illness, sufferring, and death doesn't make quite as attractive a political stance as standing up for the "right to life" of an embryo.

On the other hand, when you think about it from a purely cold yet  practical standpoint, it does at least make a little bit of sense.

The Planet Pluto-Astronomy v Astrology

Hey, astronomers, yo, yeah you-

STILL WAITING ON WORD OF THE DISCOVERY OF PLANET X-WHERE THE FUCK IS IT?????

Yeah, I'm talking about the decision to declassify Pluto from it's status as planet to that of "dwarf planet". Evidently, size does matter. Well, not really. It seems the astronomers have a conumdrum. At least partly as an effort to distance themselves from what they like to think of as their crazy uncle up in the attic, they long ago denied that the perturbations observed years ago in the orbits of Neptune were caused by the tiny planet Pluto. This despite the fact that those perturbations lead to Plutos discovery in exactly the place it was predicted a planet would be discovered-this finally occurred in 1930.

Immediately, astronomers insisted there had to be a much larger planet out there somewhere that was responsible. Well, it's been seventy six years, and still no "Planet X". Just a bunch of smaller asteroids, most of them smaller than Pluto, some a little larger, and all of them way farther away than Pluto from the sun and from Neptune. This was dubbed the Keipper Belt. Nothing on the magnitude of a gas giant which Planet X was presumed to be.

Well, to astrology, size doesn't matter. Nothing matters but power, and measurable effect. Therefore, as the obvious effects of Pluto on Neptune lead to it's discovery in 1930, I propose that, from the perspective of the astrologer, Pluto should remain classified as a planet. Nuff said.

But, if you want to read more, the following post which I have reproduced through the magic of copy and paste from from a December 18 2005 post entitled "Pluto-Planet of Darkness And Magic", should suffice.

People who believe in astrology-not the hocus pocus newspaper kind that purports to predict life events to an impossible degree, but to those of us who use it as a form of divination,or a method of measuring the effects of the energies of the planets on the sun and earth (and therfore indirectly, through such things as the weather, on ourselves), need no longer concern ourselves with the views of the astronomer, who evidently have way too much time on their hands to be taken seriously on matters such as this.

So, without further ado, the original article follows which should explain the potential and power of Pluto-still the ninth planet of the solar system:

http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/2005/12/
Pluto-World Of Darkness And Magic

Well, tonight may be a Full Moon to remember, for while the Sun is in oppossition to the Moon tonight, it is also in a nearly complete conjunction with the dark planet, Pluto (within just one degree). Should be a great night for magic, as Pluto is a planet of immense power, despite it's tiny size and great distance from the sun, and from us.

Most astronomers long ago decreed that Pluto is a fairly insignificant place, and I have always felt that this was a shot fired across the bridge of astrology, the quirky and somewhat disreputable cousin to astronomy. True, the tiny planet, the smallest one in our solar system, was discovered due to disruptions noted in the orbit of the giant planet Neptune-which is four times the size of earth. Neptune, it so happens, was discovered the same way, by disruptions in the orbits of it's nearest neighbor, Uranus, which is even larger than it.

So whatever this as yet discovered planet was that was causing this disruption in the orbit of Neptune was undoubtedly of considerable size itself, right?

Well, no, not really. Until recently Pluto was considered the second smallest planet in the solar system, slightly larger than Mercury, when it was first discovered around 1930. However, by the 1970's, it was ascertained that Pluto was even smaller than had previousy been believed. You see, up until this time, astronomers had not been looking at Pluto alone. They had been looking at Pluto alongside what turned out to be it's moon, (Charon it was later named, after the mythological ferryman to the Underworld of Hades, or Pluto, and Persephone).

As it happenned, so distant was Pluto, and so small, that the two worlds together created the illussion of being just one planet. Or was it a planet? Due to the peculiar eccentricities of it's orbit, many considered that Pluto may have at one time in the long ago past, been a comet. At any rate, it was certainly too small to have influenced in the slightest way the orbit of Neptune. There must have been something else that was respnsible for this. The inadverdant discovery of Pluto was simply-a coincidence.

Wel, it has been going on seventy-five years since the planet, or comet, was first discovered. Astronomers have perused the solar system, just recently discovering what is apparrently an even smaller planet, or perhaps a mere asteroid, which in an earlier post I nicknamed Minerva-yet this tiny little world is even farther from Neptune, and as if that weren't enough, it is orbiting the sun at a higher plane than all the other planets, which orbit on the same plane. So Minerva is not a sufficient explanation for the past disruptions in Neptunes orbit. Nor has anything else been discovered that can offer up a reasopnable explanation.

But the question remains-how can such a tiny little planet, perhaps no more than a third the size of the planet earth, have such a disruptive effect on a planet such as Neptune, which is four times earth's size. And the answer to that question may well be found in the planets little moon, Charon.

Consider-our moon is roughly one seventh the size of the earth, and has been said to have a great effect on the tides of the oceans, and possibly has an electromagnetic gravitational pull, and effect, beyond just this known fact. At one seventh our size, the moon does indeed seem to pack a powerful punch. Were it not for our moon, earth would not be the same, in fact, it is hard to envision just what it would be like.

Yet, no one has seemed to have noted that Charon, the planet of Pluto, is ONE-THIRD the size of Pluto. To illustrate, imagine if our moon were two and a half times the size it is now, what the effect on our planet might be. The disruptions in the atmosphere would be constant, no doubt. There would probably be constant earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes, and even constant volcanic eruptions. The constant energy release into the atmosphere would be staggerring, and doubltess this would have an extended and permanent effect on the gravitational pull of the earth itself.

The point is, what if this might not equally apply to the planet Pluto. It would depend, of course, on exactly what the overall make-up of the planet is to begin with. After all, there has to be something there in sufficient quantitiers to have any kind of effect, to begin with, right? Well, there can be two ways of inferring this, actually. To start out with, we go back once again to the disruptions in Neptunes orbits that lead to Plutos discovery. The other point of inference is the simple fact that, after all, Pluto is maintaining enough of a gravitational pull to support a moon one third it's own size to begin with. These two starting points are as good as any, and I would maintain that position until it is proven otherwise.

No one really knows for sure if Pluto is even cold or not, it is just assummed it is due to it's distance from the sun. It is said that Pluto is probably a small planet or former comet made up of frozen methane, for the most part, with possibly a small amount of frozen oxygen, ammonia, carbon, and maybe just a smidgen of water ice. But no one knows for sure. No one has ever had a probe close enough to know for sure even what the surface looks like, to my knowledge. Unless it is something fairly recent, there has been nothing done to establish even what the surface of the planet is like, let alone what it's interior is made up of.

Although I would hazard a guess that more than likely the planet is severely cold, it is possible that it could be warmer than currently thought, or at least could contain pockets of warmth. It could at least be hot in the interior.

My own mental image of the planet is that it might well be something very similar to Iceland, with constant eruptions of frozen geysers, though made up mostly of frozen methane. There could be fairly high mountaneous areas on the planet which could be the result of these constant eruptions. A beautiful place, yet dark, foreboding, even terrible.

But certainly powerful, and a conjunction with it is always something that is noteworthy, especially comig at a time of the Full Moon. When performing magic, it is always wise to take note of the various astrological aspects which might come into play, and those involving Pluto are certainly no exception.

I am not a believer in extraterrestrials, insofar as their purported presence on our own planet is concerned. However, this statement comes with a caveat. If there are extraterrestrials that have visited or are visitng us now, and those extraterrestrials do indeed come from some point within our own solar system-Pluto would be the most likely point of origin, for the reasons I have mentioned. Because of the power involved in this tiny and deceptive, seemingly insignificant, dark and assummedly cold little world, nothing can be taken for granted where it is concerned.

It's power, incidentally, has long been asserted by astrologers as being not only great, but disruptive, and potentially destructive. That would certainly be in keeping with the nature of my theories about the dark world. It's power has long been considered dark, in some cases sexual, in some cases aligned with death and destruction, and in some cases it is seen as catharthic.

Whatever the case, it is a power that should not be ignored, and, utilized properly, especially in conjunction with the magic inherent on any full moon night, such as tonight, it can certainly lend a beneficial edge to any magical working.

Of course, some might say, well, even if what you say is true, and Pluto does have enough power to influence Neptunes orbit, that is a far cry from being able to influence us here on earth, and especially the sun. I would remind you of the one scientific fact of which you should be aware. Any action causes an equal and corresponding reaction. In other words, the pull of the sun on the planet Pluto itself will of necessity cause an effect on the sun itself. And that will, of course, have an effect, if only a slight, imperceptible one, on us. Naturally, the heavier a weight that you pick up and carry, the greater effect on your muscles, right? It's the same principle. But even the carryng of a relatively light weight will have an effect. And so it is with the effect of the sun on Pluto, and vice versa, and inadverantly, on us.

No, it is not an effect that can be predicted, like in the absurdly ridculous newspaper horoscopes. It is not even an effect that can be measured. But it is an effect that is there, and it is an effect that, if you wish, you can utilize for your own, hopefully positive, benefits.

JonBenet Ramsey-Truth And Lies

The first thing that lent so much credibility to the claims of John Mark Karr as regarding his supposed involvement in the sexual assault and murder of JonBenet Ramsey, was, well I guess it would be the fact that anybody would deem it appropriate or wise to confess to such a crime if they didn’t do it.

The second thing is the guys past history, to say nothing of his overal strangeness. He has gone through a string of teaching jobs, both in this country and a horde of foreign ones, including Thailand, none of which seems to have lasted more than a couple of weeks.

He was let go from some due to the fact that he was too strict. He was let go from others because he was too affectionate. Given his confessed sexual predilections, you would think he would have had to have read “Goldilocks And The Three Bears” at one time or another. Unfortunately, the lesson seems to have been lost on him. Yet, the nature of the man seems to cry out that, indeed, for his purposes, JonBenet was “just right”.

More so than his three sons, with whom he was overly strict and controlling, according to the words of his second now ex-wife, who divorced him after he was indicted for possession of internet child pornography, while living in the same California town from where Polly Klaas had been abducted and murdered-another case he was obsessed with, even to the point of communicating with the convicted Klaas killer.

He had also recently just lost yet another teaching job at the school here. I think this was one of the ones where he was “too affectionate”, though as with everything else in this bizzarre story, it’s hard to separate the facts of one case from those of the other.

Shortly afterwards, he left the coutnry, thus avoiding prosecution, after his wife seperated from him and then secured a restraining order to keep him away from their sons. He left, and seemingly never looked back, as he engaged on a trail of teaching jobs that took him to South and Central America, Africa, and Asia.

Somewhere along the line, he decided he wanted to get a sex change operation, and as of now has removed all his body hair as a first step. In the meantime, he engaged in a series of internet communications with Michael Tracey, a journalism professor at the University of Colorado, who has filmed documentaries about the case.

It was Tracey who became ever more convinced that Karr was not only one strange dude, he became convinced that he was a key player in the story of the life and death of JonBenet Ramsey, posibly the most important one of all.

The Colorado authorities thought so too, at first. However, strangely disconcerting information began to come out. Karr, according to his ex-wife, had been with her not only on the Christmas Day in question-in Alabama, no less-but had likewise been with her on every Christmas they had been together. Karr’s former father-in-law verifies this.

Karr also insists that he had drugged JonBenet and that, as if that were not enough, he had picked her up from school on the day-Christmas Day-of her death. Yet, according to the autopsy, no drugs or alcohol were found in her system, not even trace amounts, and of course there was no school on Christmas Day.

While insisting that he “loves” the child, he goes on to assert that her death was not a murder, but a horrible accident. A horrible accident, incidentally, in which the child was not only beaten over the head with what appears to have been a flashlight (though no murder weapon has turned up that would account for the contusions on her skull) but strangled with a garot fashioned makeshift from a cord tied around a broken paint brush handle that had belonged to the childs now dead mother Patsy.

He has to be lying. Or is he? There are other factors to consider.

The ransom note left behind at the scene ended with the words “Victory”, then on the final line what appears to be the signature “SBTC”.

According to a former clasmate of Carrs, he had signed her yearbook with the hope that he would in some far future find “multiple peace” and that he “shall be the conqueror”. It has also been noted that the first letters of the phrase in question was capitalized Though this is a strange declaration at any rate to put about ones own self on another persons yearbook, it may be more an indication of a strange and deluded mind, it’s connection to the Ramsey case no more than a bizarre coincidence.

If it were not, however, for one other thing. The Boulder police have stated that Carr has knowledge that was never released to the public concerning the state of the murdered girls body-something only the killer, or killers, would know. No word as of yet on exactly what that would be.

I wondered initially if it might have to do with drugs in her system. But I have seen the official autopsy report, and it has no mention of this, so that can not be it. What then is it? Perhaps more appropriately, how would this man, obviously deranged, have access to knowledge not availiable to the public at large.

There are only three explanations that make sense.

One, he could have gotten this from leaks from officials close to the investigation in the course of his obsessive compulsive study of the case.

The second possible explanation is that the Boulder police, the DA’s office, the Colorado governors staff, or someone else eager to write finis to this story, fed him the information surreptitously, in order to help him frame himself for the crime.

Both of these explanations need to be carefully looked into. Yet, there is a third that is at least as likely, and may even be more horrifying, more disturbing, in it’s implications. And that is-he might have actually got the information from the true killer or killers. Remember, this was a man who was indicted for the possession of internet child pornography. As such, it is not beyond the realm of feasibility that, at one time or another, probably following his indictment, he came into contact with someone, a fellow member of some pedophile internet ring, who told the truth of the story.

As horrible as that is to contemplate, the question still must be asked, well why would he take credit for it? And the answer to that may well be hidden deep inside the recesses of this mans diseased mind. Still, I think it is actually reasonably easy to answer-because he has become so divorced from reality, he actually truly believes himself to be the perpetrator. I have no doubt, and would certainly not be stunned, if upon being given a polygraph examination where he repeated his “confessions”, he would pass the test with flying colors.

If so, this could well be the result of years of fantasizing about the crime, of imagining himself in the situation of the killer, of wanting to run away with his beloved JonBenet, and of accidentally killing her. After all, he was a strict disciplinarian, according to some who know him as well as you could possibly know an individual such as this. Such a fantasy would play into his personality and character. Of course, afterward he would grieve for his unnecessarilly rough actions, which cost him a good many of his jobs, both of his wives (the first of whom was only thirteen when he married her while he was in his twenties), his three sons, all his friends and families, the respect of all who knew him, and now, JonBenet Ramsey.

I believe that JonBenet Ramsey has become like a goddess to him, a mediator if you will in order to attone for his past actions, like, the hard way.

There is yet another aspect to this-a much darker one. What if, while one night in the course of making his regular rounds on Internet porn sites, he happenned onto a site, a private, encrypted one, that it would take him months to gain approval to join.

After so long of being a member of this site, it paid off in a way he had never suspected. One night, he logged onto a link on the site that took him into the darkest depths of the vilest hell imaginable. He was transfixed by the site of the film on the link, and went back to it over and over again.

He probably never actually saw the men on the camera, though he saw glimpses of them, more shadows than substance, save maybe for a flash of arm and leg, possibly a huge hardened dick pointing in the direction of the little blonde haired girl that lay sleeping in a bed before she was suddenly grabbed up, a duct tape forcefully stretched around her mouth as her eyes stared wide in horror.

Perhaps the camera followed them on their journey to a darkened room in the farthest corner of a basement, as the man carried her with one or two fingers of one hand tightly clenched into the panties that yet covered her vagina while the other arm cradled her by her back.

Once down in the basement, perhaps the tape came off. Perhaps the man-or the boy-was demanding oral sex from her. Instead, she screamed. Loudly. Perhaps the sound was captured on film, perhaps it was silent, though the actions might well have been obvious. Not expecting this reaction, the girl was hit, forcefully, on the head. A little too forcefully.

Looking now at the fruits of their labors, the men then fashioned a garrot in order to finish the job, out of a cord and the first availiable implement they could find that was handy-a paint brush. Though this part might not have been filmed, the first unnecessarily and accidentally savage blow doubtless would have been.

In time, over the years, the men might now have realized what they had done-and more importantly, they realized what they had. A film that, over an encrypted child pornography site, might be worth a lot of money. And one that, maybe, just possibly, would be graphic enough to send a man with a mind already teeterring over the edge into psychosis spiralling down into the depths of a fantasy from which he might never recover.

I know it sounds almost too bizarre to be believed, but consider-it helps to explain as to why John Mark Carr would have such intimate knowledge of the details of the crime, yet in all likelihood had no true involvemnent in it. It explains other things as well. The piercing scream reported from a neighbor, yet which was reportedly unheard by the other family members. Which, accorrding to accoustic investigations of the house, makes sense. A scream coming from that part of the basement would not have been audible to the family asleep upstairs, yet would have been to those in close proximity on the outside.

And there is one other factor. Though one neighbor asserted that she had noticed that one light on the house, which was always left on, had been turned out that night, yet another interviewed neighbor in the course of an official interview attested to having noticed “strange lights” coming from the house.

The ransom note may have been a blind, meant to buy the perpetrator, or perpetrators, enough time to make a getaway and make sure they covered their tracks in various ways. It might have even been left beforehand, for pretty much the same purpose. Which if true would presuppose the intent to actually either kidnap the child, or to rape and murder her, maybe there at the home, maybe somewhere else.

All the movie references in the note does seem to suggest an action movie buff, who might have been the kind of person to make this kind of movie. They are out there. But that can be the subject of another post.

For now, though I hate to end this with a cliche', it does seem appropriate to note that, as they say, behind every lie there is at least a small grain of truth.