The Widow’s Son has tagged me, over at The Burning Taper, to do a meme revolving around books. This idea takes me back some. It has been so long since I have read one, I had almost forgotten they exist. The tag is to list three books that have had an influence on your life, particularly books that most other people may not have read. After giving it some thought-here goes:
THE MYSTIC PATH TO COSMIC POWER, by Vernon Howard
No, this book will not turn you into a poor man’s Silver Surfer. However, it does give invaluable advice on how to live your life, as what the book refers to as “your true self”. Not the self you have formulated over the years of societal influences, but the real you that sleeps unawares, or at best is desperately yearning to break out.
What the book teaches is this: you are not your drives, your desires, your needs, your lusts, your ambitions, your possessions, your job, your career goals, your likes or dislikes, etc. These things have their place, and have a degree of importance, but way too many people identify themselves as dependent on these things, as actually being these things. Taken all together, these things become a “false self”. Even positive attributes when allowed to take control of a person’s identity are not actually good. In fact, this type of self-identification with these outer attributes lead to a form of dependence, even slavery, to them.
For example, suppose you want to sleep with your neighbor’s wife. Howard teaches us that, the correct way to look at this situation is not that “I want to fuck my neighbor’s wife”, but that “IT wants to fuck my neighbor’s wife”. By looking at such base desires (and even more positive ones) in this light, it gives you power over them, power to control, change, and maybe even discard them, as opposed to them ruling over your life, and even becoming your life.
It’s good stuff and draws on a variety of examples from various different philosophies and spiritual disciplines, from the New Testament, Buddhism, The Tao, to Master Eickhert. All these philosophies, past teachers and masters, have many things in common, and all advise to take charge of your life, live it fully and joyfully, but without care and worry, by simply living life as it comes, more or less, and being yourself.
You can sum it up perhaps with two words-WAKE UP!
THE SATANIC BIBLE, by Anton Szandor LaVey
These two books taken together are not as contradictory to each other as they might appear to be at first glance. In fact, in ways they are actually complimentary. LaVey felt that all organized religion amounted to what he called “hoodwinking”, and he spared no criticism towards Wicca, or other so-called “white path” religions. To LaVey, life was too complicate to view in terms of black and white. To his way of thinking, the whole universe is one vast grey area.
Yet, he actually did not believe in Satan as an actual controlling entity, but as more of an archetype of the human experience. God he saw not as an omnipotent, caring, wise creator, but as actually little more than an impersonal cosmic force.
He felt that human drives, desires, impulses, needs, and even lusts were natural, and therefore to be indulged, albeit within reason, and in moderation, and with all due appropriate respect for others, as well as yourself. Anyone who denied this or sought to overly restrain or control, or even deny these base human needs, was either a fool, or in the case of some religious leaders, manipulators and frauds. He also had a lot to say about “psychic vampires” (a term I think LaVey might have invented), who fed off guilt or gratitude to the extent they drained a person’s energies.
In his world view, the fulfillment of the needs of human ego and desire was of the utmost priority, but at the same time, he was an advocate of self-discipline and responsibility, and adamantly insisted on community and social responsibility, and on the need for law and order.
His religion is actually a very hedonistic one, and though in some cases it might seem harsh and cruel in terms of, for example, his views on charity to the dispossessed and poor, etc., it is hard to fault his overall positions. Moreover, a great deal of the ritual and magickal parts of the book is very compelling, poetic, and entertaining. For example, the section of invocations and spells written in the Enochian Keys is powerful stuff. According to him, a recitation of a spell in this language is, due to the vibrations inherent in its tonal qualities, very powerful and effective if done properly.
Like most magickal/occult books, there is the obligatory version of an invocation to the elements. His invocation to what would ordinarily be called The Elemental Power Of Air is, “Howl, Ye Winds”. I have always liked that, and in fact, I sometimes use it.
More importantly, however, is that LaVey helped me to understand that there is no “sin” in being a normal, natural human being. In fact, it is good if done properly, with no guilt, no shame, but at the same time, with self-discipline and regard for the rights and well-being of society as a whole and the rights of others to also live their lives to the fullest.
“Do what thou wilt so long as you harm none”, in other words, might be a perfect summation of LaVey’s philosophy, albeit in his own particular style of circus-like showmanship.
THE NAKED APE, by Desmond Morris
If you ever find yourself in a debate with somebody that falls back on that old chestnut of fundamentalist anti-evolutionary argument “if man descended from apes why are there still apes?” this is the book you will want to have read. The answer of course, is not that man descended from apes-mankind is himself a specific species of ape. Just as gorillas are one branch of the ape family, and chimpanzees are another, as well as baboons, orangutans, etc. - humans are themselves a specific type of ape.
This book not only points this out-which I already had figured out, incidentally, before I had ever heard of it-but it goes into some detail as to the set of circumstances that might have led to mankind’s gradual evolutionary climb from tree-dwelling, to land based, to water dependent species of ape. Once as hairy as our relatives, our loss of body hair-or fur if you will-was merely another evolutionary adaptation.
The book is largely theoretical, yet even in its obvious suppositions, it is based on solid ground, developed from years of scientific and anthropological findings. It even offers a remarkably lucid theory about the possible origins of religion, specifically to belief in a supreme deity, which is something, by the way, which is a standard feature even of most polytheistic faiths.
According to this theory, one dominant male ape at one time controlled humans, much as you see in several other ape species and other kinds of mammals as well. This dominant male controlled every aspect of group life, including which male ape he permitted to have sex with which female ape.
Somewhere along the evolutionary climb, the dominant ape in most if not all tribal divisions of ape families were killed off. The reasons are unclear. It may have been due to some cataclysmic disaster, or to some kind of rebellion, or an illness or plaque. Possibly, it may have been a simple aspect itself of evolutionary adaptation, a need to harness greater inter-tribal cooperation. Whatever the reason may have been, no one ape was ever able to maintain that degree of total control over their group, or respective groups, ever again.
This led to rivalries, and to alliances, and ultimately to battles and to, in some cases, compromises. It was the beginning of human law, as we know it, and to the further establishment of what was to become a code of morals, which became necessary in order for the tribe to not only survive, but to function as a cohesive unit.
Unfortunately, there was also a void, a vacuum that needed to be filled, in the form of dependence on an “all-powerful” entity that made the important decisions, someone who was needed to be looked upon as infallible, without peer; all-wise. Belief in “God” not only filled this void-met this need-it also solidified the law as propagated and enforced by those rulers who came to be viewed as the bridge between man and “god”. This was the newly emerging priest class.
Dreams, awe of natural phenomenon, and the insatiable human attribute of the need to know, also helped the process along (along with possibly the incidental ingestion from time to time of psychedelic substances, in my own personal view).
Yet, it is important to understand that Morris himself does not in this book question the existence of God, nor does he seek to affirm it. He simply explains how the belief might have come about, while allowing the readers to make their own interpretation as to its validity, or lack thereof. Well, if there is a God, who is to say he did not prepare his eventual introduction to humankind by precisely this means.
Whatever your view or where you come down on the evolutionary/creationist debate, this is a worthwhile book, actually an invaluable one, in my opinion. It could not only make evolution believable, but even comprehensible, actually, to folks that might not previously have given it a lot of thought, or might be basing their judgments on false premises.
I could list a few others, but the meme called for three, so I will stick to that. It also called to tag five others. Well, if you are one of the five other bloggers who read this blog on a regular basis, consider yourselves tagged. You are on your honor.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Paris Hilton's Special Treatment Is Media Manipulated
ABOVE PHOTO-Paris Hilton Mug Shot, From Reuters
The media has spent the last several years, maybe even decades, inventing stories from whole cloth, and in some cases out of thin air. All it takes is a dash of celebrity, hopefully surrounded by at least a minimal amount of talent, and if the so-called star in question has a self-destructive personality so much the better. If the person is an alcoholic or a drug addict, has seemingly endless relationship or marital problems, and is in the habit of making stupid or offensive statements or participating in questionable activities, the media cannot seem to get enough of it.
Therefore, when Paris Hilton ended up receiving a jail sentence in Los Angeles County for driving under the influence, after several preceding arrests for similar offenses, you might expect it would be one of the top stories of the day. You could certainly expect no less from the likes of the National Enquirer, the Star, and other such tabloids, but it no longer stops there. Along came such entities as Entertainment Tonight, Extra, and even The Today Show and Good Morning America got into the act. When such network programs as these, along with The View and other network morning programs, involve themselves in this style of fluff journalism, you start to wonder just how long it can last.
Then, however, you get into such venues as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, and suddenly you realize this and similar stories about other such celebrity personalities have indeed become an American obsession. At the same time, it is easy to see that it is a media driven obsession. No sooner does one hourly news program feature a segment on the life and times of Paris in LA lock-up, than the following program repeats the same story almost verbatim, in an endless cycle.
Now of course it is time for the next chapter. There is now outrage over the sentence of Paris Hilton, commuted by the Sheriff of Los Angeles County from a jail sentence to house arrest. This is hailed as an example of how the rich and famous are afforded “special treatment”.
In ordinary cases of this type, I would tend to agree, but not in this case, for the simple fact I think this is a manufactured controversy from start to finish. Sure, when Paris Hilton, being a reckless and controversial celebrity society figure, is arrested for DUI and sentenced to time in jail, it is certainly news.
On the other hand, isn’t the inordinate amount of pres coverage given this affair a little much, even extreme? Imagine how it would be if you were an employee of the Los Angeles County Jail, and you went to work every day only to be greeted by a constant barrage of reporters and photographers, asking the same inane questions, shooting pictures, harassing officials and employees of the system as they go to and from their daily jobs. Asking the same questions that they have been told repeatedly they aren’t allowed to answer, in a great many cases.
Then, there is doubtless the constant barrage of phone calls, asking for interviews, shouting out the same questions that were answered or not outside over the last week, questions from reporters that represent not just the seedier tabloids, but allegedly respectable news organizations as well. It would be more than enough to bring the already beleaguered and understaffed county’s official business to an all but complete standstill.
So what else could the sheriff do? True enough, Paris Hilton should have served the same amount of time as anyone else convicted of her crime. On the other hand, most other people do not warrant so much inordinate press coverage that it threatens the day-to-day operations of the city. That same media that is now very disingenuously raising the issue of unfair treatment of the rich is actually the ones who are responsible for this travesty. Their hypocrisy is astounding, to say the least.
So why does the public not call them on this crap? How dare they bitch and moan about Paris Hilton’s allegedly light sentence and treatment, when they manipulated the entire sorry sequence of events from start to finish? Of course, she got off easy, but it is their fault, and they fucking know it. If they have not figured that out, it sure as hell does not say much for their reporting skills. Of course they know it.
Nevertheless, you can still count on them beating the drum of class struggle with Paris Hilton cast in the role of the modern day Marie Antoinette, or maybe Imelda Marcos. It will not be too long before someone, with their wholehearted encouragement, will be accusing the sheriff or some other county official of taking bribes. Anything, you see, to ratchet up the rhetoric and sell the story.
If you ever needed a reason to wonder why so many Americans not only mistrust, but also even hate the media-both the allegedly liberal and the conservative sides of it-you need look no further than this blatantly manipulative hypocrisy.
UPDATE-Turns out that, according to this report Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer specified in his sentencing of Hilton that she was not to be given home incarceration, but was to serve the entirety of her 45 day sentence at the Lynwood lock-up of Los Angeles County. For violating this order, Sheriff Lee Baca may, in fact, be open to charges of contempt, according to County Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.
So what does that tell you? That tells me that conditions within the jail were unbearable, not only for Hilton, but for the staff, thanks mainly to the media, no doubt.
Moreover, according to Leonard Levine, who has worked many such cases, early release for people convicted of such offenses as Hilton's is not unusual, regardless of their income or social status, especially during periods of overcrowding within the jail system.
So much for Hilton getting special treatment. Nevertheless, she is scheduled to reappear in court tomorrow, at which point she very possibly could be made to spend the remainder of her time at Lynwood, as previously ordered.
The three ring circus just got extended for an extra engagement. In my opinion, Hilton should think about suing precisely for getting special treatment, only not in the way in which it is being portrayed. If anything, here the opposite would seem to be the case.
And Mercury Shal Show Us The Way
I'm on the fence about this deal. I know it's coming one way or another, so maybe this is the most reasonable policy I could have hoped for. On the other hand, I automatically find any multi-national agreement repugnant by it's very nature, regardless of how positive it might seem to be on the surface.
It calls for a stop in the increase of emissions, after which it specifies a further reduction by 2050.
I still think it's a load of shit, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, where is China, India, and Brazil? They're taking up the fucking slack, of course, so emissions will probably continue to rise on a global level.
On a positive note, it could encourage the advances of new technologies, which could in the long run be more beneficial than detrimental to the US economy.
Still, you have to wonder about the sincerity of environmental activists when they promote replacement of standard light bulbs with phosphorescent lights that utilize-wait for it-mercury gases.
Yeah, mercury, one of the most poisonous elements in the known universe. Soon perhaps to be anchored in place over a dinner table near you.
I have this sneaking idea somebody somewhere stands to make a killing off mercury futures.
It calls for a stop in the increase of emissions, after which it specifies a further reduction by 2050.
I still think it's a load of shit, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, where is China, India, and Brazil? They're taking up the fucking slack, of course, so emissions will probably continue to rise on a global level.
On a positive note, it could encourage the advances of new technologies, which could in the long run be more beneficial than detrimental to the US economy.
Still, you have to wonder about the sincerity of environmental activists when they promote replacement of standard light bulbs with phosphorescent lights that utilize-wait for it-mercury gases.
Yeah, mercury, one of the most poisonous elements in the known universe. Soon perhaps to be anchored in place over a dinner table near you.
I have this sneaking idea somebody somewhere stands to make a killing off mercury futures.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
So, Me And AnneCoulter Are Racists
I guess I must be. After all, I agree with this article one hundred percent. According to this, if I leave this country I'll be required to pay taxes to it for the next ten years. I guess that's assuming I don't renounce my citizenship, which if I left is exactly what I would do.
Russia is starting to look awful tempting.
No free speech in Russia, you say? Oh yeah, that's that thing that if I express it here I'm a racist, yeah, I remember. How could I ever give that up?
No freedom of the press in Russia? Ye Gods, how could I ever live without my non-stop Britney Spears coverage?
No freedom of religion? Yeah, that's tough. I think before I go I'm going to head out to the nearest public park in my black ritual robe, with my sword, censor, brazier, and bowl of salt, invoke in a loud voice the powers of earth, air, fire, and water, and bid one final adieu to all the gods and goddesses of the Hellenic pantheon, major and minor. Maybe I'll end with Crowley's Hymn To Pan, the Horned Goat God.
Wait a minute, I just thought of something. Word is that Putin's Russia is brutal towards it's Muslim population, especially towards the ones such as the Chechnyan rebels that assault private citizens, and even school children. They actually kill them outright when they try to do stuff like that-
The horror! I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!
And what's all this about Putin aiming nukes toward Europe? What syllable of the word "civilized" causes that guy so much confusion? How dare he object to NATO drawing closer and closer to his nation's borders? Why, he must be paranoid to worry so much about a little boondoggle like that.
Of course, Russia is notoriously corrupt. Their bureaucrats are always dipping their paws in the public coffers, and word has it that many of them are associated with-get this, now-MAFIA FIGURES! A great many of their legislators are actually not only swindlers, but demagogues, panderers, and, as if all that weren't bad enough, they are career politicians.
I bet a thorough investigation would even reveal a good many if not most of them -GASP-TAKE BRIBES FROM SPECIAL INTERESTS!!!!
Maybe I'd better think this thing through a little more clearly. Maybe I should just stay and hope for the best. After all, who would want to live in an awful fucking place like Russia?
Russia is starting to look awful tempting.
No free speech in Russia, you say? Oh yeah, that's that thing that if I express it here I'm a racist, yeah, I remember. How could I ever give that up?
No freedom of the press in Russia? Ye Gods, how could I ever live without my non-stop Britney Spears coverage?
No freedom of religion? Yeah, that's tough. I think before I go I'm going to head out to the nearest public park in my black ritual robe, with my sword, censor, brazier, and bowl of salt, invoke in a loud voice the powers of earth, air, fire, and water, and bid one final adieu to all the gods and goddesses of the Hellenic pantheon, major and minor. Maybe I'll end with Crowley's Hymn To Pan, the Horned Goat God.
Wait a minute, I just thought of something. Word is that Putin's Russia is brutal towards it's Muslim population, especially towards the ones such as the Chechnyan rebels that assault private citizens, and even school children. They actually kill them outright when they try to do stuff like that-
The horror! I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!
And what's all this about Putin aiming nukes toward Europe? What syllable of the word "civilized" causes that guy so much confusion? How dare he object to NATO drawing closer and closer to his nation's borders? Why, he must be paranoid to worry so much about a little boondoggle like that.
Of course, Russia is notoriously corrupt. Their bureaucrats are always dipping their paws in the public coffers, and word has it that many of them are associated with-get this, now-MAFIA FIGURES! A great many of their legislators are actually not only swindlers, but demagogues, panderers, and, as if all that weren't bad enough, they are career politicians.
I bet a thorough investigation would even reveal a good many if not most of them -GASP-TAKE BRIBES FROM SPECIAL INTERESTS!!!!
Maybe I'd better think this thing through a little more clearly. Maybe I should just stay and hope for the best. After all, who would want to live in an awful fucking place like Russia?
Things To Look Out For
Sacred Fems has a new blogger by the name of Arnulfa, who is a person I have known for a few years now. I am privileged to have seen a preview of her yet to be published article about female celebrities. The theme explores how many such female stars may have attracted such huge followings, based as much, and in some cases maybe more, on their personalities as their talents. Arnulfa theorizes that they may be answering to a long neglected and subconscious need for cultural manifestations of the Sacred Feminine.
Of course, in ancient cultures, not all aspects of the divine feminine were positive, and in fact, they could be very negative, even destructive. One look at the lives of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, or Lindsey Lohan and you have to wonder-is THAT why we, as a society and culture, are so obsessed with them?
That is probably what Princes William and Harry are wondering these days. They have insisted an up-and-coming documentary about their mother’s death is disrespectful to her memory. They want her to rest in peace, and have pleaded for the show to not air photos of her taken after the accident, but they will doubtless be ignored. The documentary contains footage of the Princess in the immediate aftermath of her fatal accident, even displaying her during some of the last minutes of her life,before she finally succumbed to her injuries.
Diana is to all intents and purposes yet revered as was any goddess of old, and there is little doubt the show will draw in massive amounts of viewers, as it will here if it is ever shown in the States.
Look for William Jefferson to be abandoned by all his congressional colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Even the Black Congressional Caucus could not be stupid enough to stand by him now. Could they? Well, they have up until now, which is the major reason House Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed him to keep his committee seat. Of course, that was before his indictment on something like sixteen counts of wire fraud, obstruction of justice, money laundering, bribery, etc. If convicted on all these counts, he could face a total of two and a half centuries in prison. I have an idea though that if he wanted, he could take a lot of people down with him, which is why you are not going to hear much out of Congressional Democrats-especially the black caucus-other than a deafening silence.
Look for Hollywood film star, former Watergate Committee lawyer and two term Tennessee Senator Republican Fred Thompson to announce for President in a bid for the GOP nomination, probably after July 4th. It’s almost a sure bet, he even has this web-site and an exploratory committee. All the signs are there. If he does enter, which he almost certainly will, it will change the entire dynamic of the primary contest, and maybe the general election as well.
Thompson has been urged to run for months by the conservative wing of the party, is well-liked and respected throughout the party and general public, and may accomplish what no other major candidate can hope to accomplish. Which is to say, he is the most likely to be able to win BOTH the GOP nomination AND the general election.
His announcement would be the death knell for John McCain’s candidacy, and his only serious opponent actually would be Giuliani. If Romney remained in the race, he would probably poll a distant third to Giulliani and Thompson, though he might yet pull enough votes to enable Giuliani to maintain a slight edge.
Everybody else would have about as much a chance of coming out on top as Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic primaries.
Also, look out for the series finale of the Sopranos. It promises to be a bloodbath, and I’m betting Tony doesn’t survive, though I think his end won’t come about the way most people think. I’m going to guess he barely survives an encounter with Phil, who he will kill in the midst of a particularly bloody and violent encounter. Tony will later learn that his sole surviving partner has agreed to an immunity deal in return for providing evidence of the mobs’ activities.
Then he may well learn that his son, recently released from a psychiatric hospital, has run off rather than be forced to live a life in hiding with his father, whom he has come to resent and despise. He could possibly even make a second and this successful suicide attempt. His wife might leave him as well, for good. Tony of course understands all too well that if he is convicted of organized crime activities, he not only stands to lose everything-his family does as well.
I have this sneaking idea that the last scene of the show will have Tony Soprano with a gun in his mouth. The last sound you hear will be the sound of the thing going off. Of course, this is HBO (which I don’t get, by the way)-so you never can tell. The last sight you see might actually be Tony Soprano’s brains splattering the office walls of his therapist, to whom he will return for one last final goodbye, or maybe in the privacy of his now abandoned home.
This of course would serve to make the point that-for the Sopranos-this is definitely THE END.
Or, Tony could be talked by his therapist into turning states evidence, after which he enters the witness protection program with a new identity, under the name Tony Finnerty. After all, dreams do sometimes come true.
Finally, I am going to publish more chapters of RADU. However, I am going to do so just one chapter at a time. Here, I must offer my sincere apologies for unintentionally misleading you. I said the last part I published was about 50 pages. I thought that didn’t seem right. Well, that’s what I get for not wearing my glasses when I checked my word count. It was actually 153 pages, made up of a Prologue and Chapters 1-10.
Chapter 11 will be the next installment, and it is-I promise-a mere 25 pages long. I may post the entire thing here, but if I do, it will be likewise in one chapter installments from here on out. Chapter 11, which is the opening chapter of Part Two, will be posted here in a day or two, or early next week at the latest.
Afterwards, look for an up-and-coming milestone of sorts, in the form of –
666
That’s right, we are rapidly coming up on post number six hundred sixty six. Somehow, I would feel remiss if I did not have something appropriate to mark the occasion. I do not know yet exactly what it is going to be, but hopefully, I’ll think of something.
Of course, in ancient cultures, not all aspects of the divine feminine were positive, and in fact, they could be very negative, even destructive. One look at the lives of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, or Lindsey Lohan and you have to wonder-is THAT why we, as a society and culture, are so obsessed with them?
That is probably what Princes William and Harry are wondering these days. They have insisted an up-and-coming documentary about their mother’s death is disrespectful to her memory. They want her to rest in peace, and have pleaded for the show to not air photos of her taken after the accident, but they will doubtless be ignored. The documentary contains footage of the Princess in the immediate aftermath of her fatal accident, even displaying her during some of the last minutes of her life,before she finally succumbed to her injuries.
Diana is to all intents and purposes yet revered as was any goddess of old, and there is little doubt the show will draw in massive amounts of viewers, as it will here if it is ever shown in the States.
Look for William Jefferson to be abandoned by all his congressional colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Even the Black Congressional Caucus could not be stupid enough to stand by him now. Could they? Well, they have up until now, which is the major reason House Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed him to keep his committee seat. Of course, that was before his indictment on something like sixteen counts of wire fraud, obstruction of justice, money laundering, bribery, etc. If convicted on all these counts, he could face a total of two and a half centuries in prison. I have an idea though that if he wanted, he could take a lot of people down with him, which is why you are not going to hear much out of Congressional Democrats-especially the black caucus-other than a deafening silence.
Look for Hollywood film star, former Watergate Committee lawyer and two term Tennessee Senator Republican Fred Thompson to announce for President in a bid for the GOP nomination, probably after July 4th. It’s almost a sure bet, he even has this web-site and an exploratory committee. All the signs are there. If he does enter, which he almost certainly will, it will change the entire dynamic of the primary contest, and maybe the general election as well.
Thompson has been urged to run for months by the conservative wing of the party, is well-liked and respected throughout the party and general public, and may accomplish what no other major candidate can hope to accomplish. Which is to say, he is the most likely to be able to win BOTH the GOP nomination AND the general election.
His announcement would be the death knell for John McCain’s candidacy, and his only serious opponent actually would be Giuliani. If Romney remained in the race, he would probably poll a distant third to Giulliani and Thompson, though he might yet pull enough votes to enable Giuliani to maintain a slight edge.
Everybody else would have about as much a chance of coming out on top as Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic primaries.
Also, look out for the series finale of the Sopranos. It promises to be a bloodbath, and I’m betting Tony doesn’t survive, though I think his end won’t come about the way most people think. I’m going to guess he barely survives an encounter with Phil, who he will kill in the midst of a particularly bloody and violent encounter. Tony will later learn that his sole surviving partner has agreed to an immunity deal in return for providing evidence of the mobs’ activities.
Then he may well learn that his son, recently released from a psychiatric hospital, has run off rather than be forced to live a life in hiding with his father, whom he has come to resent and despise. He could possibly even make a second and this successful suicide attempt. His wife might leave him as well, for good. Tony of course understands all too well that if he is convicted of organized crime activities, he not only stands to lose everything-his family does as well.
I have this sneaking idea that the last scene of the show will have Tony Soprano with a gun in his mouth. The last sound you hear will be the sound of the thing going off. Of course, this is HBO (which I don’t get, by the way)-so you never can tell. The last sight you see might actually be Tony Soprano’s brains splattering the office walls of his therapist, to whom he will return for one last final goodbye, or maybe in the privacy of his now abandoned home.
This of course would serve to make the point that-for the Sopranos-this is definitely THE END.
Or, Tony could be talked by his therapist into turning states evidence, after which he enters the witness protection program with a new identity, under the name Tony Finnerty. After all, dreams do sometimes come true.
Finally, I am going to publish more chapters of RADU. However, I am going to do so just one chapter at a time. Here, I must offer my sincere apologies for unintentionally misleading you. I said the last part I published was about 50 pages. I thought that didn’t seem right. Well, that’s what I get for not wearing my glasses when I checked my word count. It was actually 153 pages, made up of a Prologue and Chapters 1-10.
Chapter 11 will be the next installment, and it is-I promise-a mere 25 pages long. I may post the entire thing here, but if I do, it will be likewise in one chapter installments from here on out. Chapter 11, which is the opening chapter of Part Two, will be posted here in a day or two, or early next week at the latest.
Afterwards, look for an up-and-coming milestone of sorts, in the form of –
666
That’s right, we are rapidly coming up on post number six hundred sixty six. Somehow, I would feel remiss if I did not have something appropriate to mark the occasion. I do not know yet exactly what it is going to be, but hopefully, I’ll think of something.
Monday, June 04, 2007
A FAT BLIND SQUIRREL MAY HAVE FOUND AN ACORN
Michael Moore is going to be on Ophra tomorrow, plugging his new movie "Sicko". This is a film that was made under conditions of utmost secrecy, by Moores' standards at least, and may be a legitimately worthy film.
It touches on the lack of affordable health care and insurance coverage, and focuses to a great extent on the lack of quality care afforded to the firefighters and other emergency personnel who answered the call for aid during the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.
According to Moore, they have been all but ignored and even forgotten, not just by the public, but by the government.
He has also been accused of breaking US law regarding the trade embargo to Cuba. Evidently, he took it on himself to render aid to the workers by taking them to Cuba, in order to avail them of the services of the allegedly world class Cuban medical care. This is, I think, detailed in the film.
Moore denies that he broke any laws. The controversial filmmaker has made a lot of waves, and sometimes I'd like to drop him three stories just to see how high he'd bounce. On the other hand, if this documentary makes any headway at addressing the health care crisis in America-and it is a crisis-it would make up for a lot.
Not everything-especially not Bowling For Columbine-but a lot nevertheless.
It touches on the lack of affordable health care and insurance coverage, and focuses to a great extent on the lack of quality care afforded to the firefighters and other emergency personnel who answered the call for aid during the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.
According to Moore, they have been all but ignored and even forgotten, not just by the public, but by the government.
He has also been accused of breaking US law regarding the trade embargo to Cuba. Evidently, he took it on himself to render aid to the workers by taking them to Cuba, in order to avail them of the services of the allegedly world class Cuban medical care. This is, I think, detailed in the film.
Moore denies that he broke any laws. The controversial filmmaker has made a lot of waves, and sometimes I'd like to drop him three stories just to see how high he'd bounce. On the other hand, if this documentary makes any headway at addressing the health care crisis in America-and it is a crisis-it would make up for a lot.
Not everything-especially not Bowling For Columbine-but a lot nevertheless.
Tired Of All That Shit
HOWDY NEIGHBOR
How would you like it if your address was listed for seven years running as the "Sidi Toilets", the very toilets where you worked for a dollar a day and was forced to raise your family, including your wife, daughter, and now seven month old son.
Surrounded by vermin, including rats, you try desperately to get aid, but no one will help you. No friends, no family, no government agencies or social services.
That was the predicament this family found themselves in for seven years after the husband and father had to hand over all his possessions in exchange for the return of his kidnapped daughter.
Well, the government finally did something. They kicked the family out and barred the doors. Now they are staying in a cramped little apartment with family, in a neighborhood of Morocco that is a breeding ground for terrorists, amidst unimaginable squalor in a country considered a US ally, where a small percentage of the population enjoys vast wealth.
The next time Hillary Clinton decides to vacation in Morocco as she did a few years back in an obviously politically calculated ruse to demonstrate how some Arab nations are "good", I think I know the perfect ac "commode"ations for her.
Read about the whole shitty mess here.
Surrounded by vermin, including rats, you try desperately to get aid, but no one will help you. No friends, no family, no government agencies or social services.
That was the predicament this family found themselves in for seven years after the husband and father had to hand over all his possessions in exchange for the return of his kidnapped daughter.
Well, the government finally did something. They kicked the family out and barred the doors. Now they are staying in a cramped little apartment with family, in a neighborhood of Morocco that is a breeding ground for terrorists, amidst unimaginable squalor in a country considered a US ally, where a small percentage of the population enjoys vast wealth.
The next time Hillary Clinton decides to vacation in Morocco as she did a few years back in an obviously politically calculated ruse to demonstrate how some Arab nations are "good", I think I know the perfect ac "commode"ations for her.
Read about the whole shitty mess here.
Tea For Two And Arms Control Too
Putin is up-in-arms about US plans to arm Eastern Europe with a missile defense shield. I'm all for assistance to Eastern Europe, or would be, were it not for the fact that I don't believe we should be involved in European politics at all.
It won't take long for the EU to drag Poland, Romania, etc., down to their level, so why continue to supplement the defense of the European continent in general?
Time to do away with NATO. It served it's purpose, now it's main reason for existence is as a continued bureaucracy which serves no useful purpose other than to drain US funds into the deep pockets of US State and Defense Department and European diplomats, and to inflate the Pentagon budget, with all it's attendant financial drain into the coffers of the military industrial complex.
It's also an excuse to insure American markets have an opening through Europe as a base for stability and expansion. What military threat it actually addresses is minimal at best.
There used to be a little known department made up of a small cadre of bureaucrats whose sole function it was to test imported tea. It had it's origins back in the earliest days of the Roosevelt Administration's New Deal policies. It was little more really than a boondoggle that amounted to a social club, one which I seriously doubt actually sipped tea, unless it was Long Island Tea liquor. It was made up of about eight bureaucrats who were actually paid a yearly salary to perform this "service" to the nation.
It took more than sixty years for the thing to be done away with, which occurred during the Clinton Administrations symbolic and mostly impotent attempt to "cut pork".
The actual benefit of this little known bureaucracy was, however, every bit as valuable throughout it's years of existence as NATO is now to the US, and didn't cost near as much money to maintain.
It won't take long for the EU to drag Poland, Romania, etc., down to their level, so why continue to supplement the defense of the European continent in general?
Time to do away with NATO. It served it's purpose, now it's main reason for existence is as a continued bureaucracy which serves no useful purpose other than to drain US funds into the deep pockets of US State and Defense Department and European diplomats, and to inflate the Pentagon budget, with all it's attendant financial drain into the coffers of the military industrial complex.
It's also an excuse to insure American markets have an opening through Europe as a base for stability and expansion. What military threat it actually addresses is minimal at best.
There used to be a little known department made up of a small cadre of bureaucrats whose sole function it was to test imported tea. It had it's origins back in the earliest days of the Roosevelt Administration's New Deal policies. It was little more really than a boondoggle that amounted to a social club, one which I seriously doubt actually sipped tea, unless it was Long Island Tea liquor. It was made up of about eight bureaucrats who were actually paid a yearly salary to perform this "service" to the nation.
It took more than sixty years for the thing to be done away with, which occurred during the Clinton Administrations symbolic and mostly impotent attempt to "cut pork".
The actual benefit of this little known bureaucracy was, however, every bit as valuable throughout it's years of existence as NATO is now to the US, and didn't cost near as much money to maintain.
Chinese Takeout
If you think the Iraq War has been badly handled, just imagine what a war with China would be like. Don't think you are the only one who imagined such a scenario. Possibly the first major event of the Bush Administration early in 2001 involved the forced landing of an American military jet on Chinese soil, amidst an accusation of spying.
After a relatively brief amount of time, about a week or so, during the period of a tense public relations standoff, underscored by feverish diplomatic haggling, the matter was resolved. Still, it was the first humiliating experience handed the fledgling Bush Administration.
Now it turns out, according to this report, that all but forgotten incident may have been the icing on the cake. There may have potentially been a conflict between the State and Defense Departments concerning the official "One China Policy" that has been the standard for Sino-American relations since the latter part of the first term of the Nixon Administration.
A list of the usual suspects amongst the Neo-Cons seems to have favored an abrupt reversal of the policy, even going so far as to encourage the Taiwanese to declare independence from mainland China, while Colin Powell's State Department adamantly insisted they should "let sleeping dogs lie".
The Neo-Cons, according to this controversial and heatedly denied report, promised American support in the event of an invasion.
Scary, scary stuff if true.
After a relatively brief amount of time, about a week or so, during the period of a tense public relations standoff, underscored by feverish diplomatic haggling, the matter was resolved. Still, it was the first humiliating experience handed the fledgling Bush Administration.
Now it turns out, according to this report, that all but forgotten incident may have been the icing on the cake. There may have potentially been a conflict between the State and Defense Departments concerning the official "One China Policy" that has been the standard for Sino-American relations since the latter part of the first term of the Nixon Administration.
A list of the usual suspects amongst the Neo-Cons seems to have favored an abrupt reversal of the policy, even going so far as to encourage the Taiwanese to declare independence from mainland China, while Colin Powell's State Department adamantly insisted they should "let sleeping dogs lie".
The Neo-Cons, according to this controversial and heatedly denied report, promised American support in the event of an invasion.
Scary, scary stuff if true.
Friday, June 01, 2007
The Right Wing Harpies Brigade
The Right Wing Harpies are like a group Frankenstein’s monsters that have recently turned on their creators. They were useful to a point, and still are, but they have recently proven troublesome to the Bush Administration for precisely the reason they were once so dependably valuable. They served as cheerleaders to the Republican manifesto of conservative economic policies and limited government. They could as well be reliably vociferous advocates and apologists for those policies and individual instances where conservative politicians and policies were of dubious natures at best.
Not in all cases, however. There have always been a few minor exceptions where they bared their fangs, either individually or collectively, at some ill-advised policy of Republicans, and especially the Bush Administration. They were to some extent actually vital in bringing about a change in said policies.
One example of this would be in the case of the nomination to the Supreme Court of Harriet Meirs, an obvious attempt to install a political hack and lackey onto the bench of the highest court in the land.
Moreover, never forget the Dubai Ports deal, which the Harpies helped render dead in the water.
Yeah, the Harpies have shit many times on the policies of the Bush Administration, and displayed them for what they are. In other words, they were already abhorrently foul- it just took the Harpies to point out the facts.
They have become a cadre, a sorority, these darlings of the right- these mostly but not all blond headed, alluring, and in some cases downright trashy appearing models of impetuous verbosity.
To the left they have been enduring headaches, to the right endearing heartthrobs.
Anne Coulter-the twist-the-knife-in-the-gut-while-smiling, sarcastic humorist.
Michelle Malkin-the boiling beneath the surface with dedicated sincerity analyst.
Laura Ingraham-the critical and thoughtfully provoking pundit with the laser-like eye for political hackery and buffoonery.
There are more, and they have not only a legion of fans and followers, but swarms of imitators, as well as some up-and-comers with some real potential. One such example of the latter is Moxie. This female blogger stepped firmly into the category of Right Wing Harpy with a recent statement to the effect that she fantasized about drinking jello-shots from Don Rumsfeld’s navel. I will never forgive her for inflicting that imagery upon me, for no other reason than I cannot quite get it out of my mind whenever I think about her or visit her blog.
I haven’t yet worked up the courage to listen to her show on BlogTalk Radio, but I’m trying, by concentrating not on her more outrageously gross statements as the one above, but on-
In the meantime, I do take heart that the Right Wing Harpies Brigade has recently
stood up to the Bush Administration over the recent Amnesty-In-Disguise-For Illegal Immigrants Bill. This is something that is far more profound than a seat on the Supreme Court- which would eventually end with death or retirement, if not removal- or an international business agreement that could likewise be reversed if necessary.
This issue contains one aspect that both sides would be hard-pressed not to see. That is, whatever its effects are going to be- if it is ever passed and implemented-those results are probably going to be irreversible.
We can always hope for the best, of course, but we had damn well better, if not fear the worse, at least recognize its potential. No one really knows what the long-term effects will be of course, though one could argue they are predictable. What is for sure is, whatever the results are, we are stuck with them. The whole thing is a gamble. The whole thing is a crapshoot, bought to you by the good folks who run the current shell game known as American democracy.
They know of course what they are getting-votes and/or cheap labor for their big money contributors. The rest of us get a hope and a prayer, and, to paraphrase Jacques Chirac, an invitation to shut the fuck up.
Here’s hoping the collective spirit of the Harpies- as aptly demonstrated by the image at top- shows more of its true persona towards the Bush Administration, and to all those other like-minded Republicans. A little shit dropped on the head and the aspirations of a politician is always a good thing, no matter to which party said politician belongs.
Flip This Body
I really like this blog, and maybe more importantly I admire this blogger and what she is trying to accomplish here. It really takes courage to put it all on the line like that. It is also very refreshing to see an overweight woman who doesn’t get defensive about her weight and insist that she should be “accepted the way she is”. Acceptance after all is not the point, it’s a matter of self-interest versus self-loathing, of personal accountability and self-discipline versus trying to pretend you don’t give a shit when you obviously do.
Her goal is to get her weight down in time for her wedding, and she is tracking her progress in that regard on her blog, in as public a manner that might be reminiscent of Valerie Bertinelli or, before her, the chick from Cheers (can't think of her name right now, sorry).
In the meantime her blog has evolved beyond that limited scope while not moving away from it. She touches on other matters on her blog, Flip This Body, which is a pleasurable read. It is indeed refreshing to find a blog that isn’t a nail-biting exercise in pure terror from one side or the other of the Chicken Little crowd. (“The sky has fallen to the earth”. “No, it’s not, it’s just fucking dirty”).
I wish her luck in her goal and hope she keeps blogging after she does, or even if she does not achieve it.
Oh, and by the way, Julie-
Those cicadas your fiance’ is so enthralled with? They are chock full of the protein you might need for a supplement from time to time. I hear they have a nut-like taste, and make quite the scrumptious pizza topping.
Renegade Eye versus Sonia Belle
There has been a great deal of discussion lately over on Sonia Belle and Renegade Eye that has at times erupted into a verbal brawl. The topic of such heated debate? Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela.
I am not necessarily pro-Chavez, but I fail to see the cause for such agony from the right. Legitimate concern is one thing, but to hear some of these people tell it, this is a sign of the approaching Apocalypse.
So, which one of the Four Horsemen is Hugo Chavez? The more Biblically minded ones would probably answer with a straight face, “Oh, he’s the third one, the one that rides a black horse and carries a set of scales.”
Here’s a clue, guys, just in case you haven’t caught on-that’s a reference to olive oil, not sweet crude.
You might also want to dig a little bit into your history, where you will see that in every case, countries that moved to communism were not exactly your shining examples of free-market capitalism and abundance of opportunity.
They were capitalist nations, for the most part, but what they all had in common was one unfortunate fact. They were oligarchies, or plutocracies, or aristocracies, where roughly one percent of the population controlled well over ninety percent of the wealth. The remaining percentage of the population got the chump change. They were pressed, oppressed, repressed, and depressed, until they finally pressed back.
There has never been a truly democratic nation, with an inclusive atmosphere for opportunity for economic advancement, with fairness and the rule of law, which went communist.
No, Western Europe and it’s socialist economic policies don’t count, for the simple reason that the United States has enabled this by taking care of their defensive needs, thereby freeing the economies of Western Europe to engage in such interesting social experiments as socialized medicine and other cradle to the grave entitlements.
Nor do the allegedly socialist policies and entitlements of the United States qualify as “communist”. Some have made the point that such policies are leading the way toward communism, but if the US or for that matter Western Europe ever does phase into this brand of jack-boot socialism, it will be a first in world history.
Again, it has never happened before.
What could happen, however, are such profound adaptations of “libertarian” economic policies and a total scrapping of any kind of oversight or regulation of big business or corporate interests in any form, that the US might eventually wake up one day to find itself the exact type of nation where a Chavez or a Castro is easily incubated.
Such examples are seemingly endless of nations that became serfdoms in all but name. All of them were comprised of a small but powerful minority of people that enslaved the masses of their populations. This is the case now in Mexico, which is ruled by a small group of white families who are generally the descendants of the old Spanish conquistadors.
The vast remainder of the population of Mexico, made up of Indians and Mestizos, and other mixed race groups, doubtless considered sub-human by the ruling overlords, find themselves out in the economic cold, reduced to crime if they ever want more than subsistence level life. For the most part, they cannot leave Mexico fast enough to suit them, or to suit the ruling elites there, which the US props up, practically subsidizing them with loans and trade agreements that benefit them to the detriment of American workers and their own population.
As it stands now, Mexico could easily become a communist nation, just as Venezuela, which had the same kind of society pre-Chavez.
That is the same kind of society the anti-Chavez crowd seems to wants here in America, if you believe their rhetoric about ending all regulations and oversight of business, and about how we should otherwise “allow the market forces to work”.
Think it could not happen here? Think again. It happens every time a corporation strong-arms a politician for ever more tax breaks, while insisting the middle class pay for the wars that are for the most part to their immediate benefit, and are in a good many cases outright promoted by them.
It happens every time an American company funnels it’s assets to offshore accounts with the tacit assistance and culpability of the very politicians whose job description is laughably the protection of the interests of ALL Americans.
It happens every time they move their operations to foreign countries where they can access workers at slave wages-or when they threaten to do so.
It happen every time they deny workers benefits, and even oppose minimum wages increases, the very things that actually built the American middle class along with the greatest economic engine in the history of the world.
Yet, no matter how often they are granted these concessions, under the illusion that “a rising tide lifts all boats”, the working people never seem to benefit. They don’t get a fucking boat. They are lucky to get a life jacket. Nevertheless, the market forces guru continue to dish out the same tired rhetoric.
Just a few more years and things will get better for everybody. Maybe in another five years. Or ten. Or twenty. Or thirty. Or forty. Or fifty. Or sixty. We have more research and development we have to conduct. We have more advertising we have to purchase. We have to remain competitive, otherwise one of those “other guys” will beat us out. Just let us make a few more billion so our investors will be happy, and we will eventually do right by you. If you get sick, or a family member dies, believe us, we are sympathetic. We will even send a basket of fruit to your home. Please don’t be greedy. We have children to send to Harvard, and to buy the best medical care and insurance for. Be reasonable. Think of our families, who we must be sure is worthy of carrying on the family tradition. We have to make sure they are smart enough to reign over you. Lead the country, we mean.
That would be the most likely immediate fate of the United States of America. Our version of Chavez would not come about until later, if he ever did. By then, the laissez-faire market advocates would be long dead and gone of course, after living a life of comfort and in some cases wealthy excess at the expense of the great-unwashed multitudes of serfs. That is the most self-serving thing about their position.
They by all rights should be around to see through their decapitated heads, for the last ten seconds or so of consciousness, the site of the crowds cheering at the site of their bulging eyes and bloody hacked necks. It would only be fair.
Unfortunately, life, like servitude under any system, is seldom fair.
I am not necessarily pro-Chavez, but I fail to see the cause for such agony from the right. Legitimate concern is one thing, but to hear some of these people tell it, this is a sign of the approaching Apocalypse.
So, which one of the Four Horsemen is Hugo Chavez? The more Biblically minded ones would probably answer with a straight face, “Oh, he’s the third one, the one that rides a black horse and carries a set of scales.”
Here’s a clue, guys, just in case you haven’t caught on-that’s a reference to olive oil, not sweet crude.
You might also want to dig a little bit into your history, where you will see that in every case, countries that moved to communism were not exactly your shining examples of free-market capitalism and abundance of opportunity.
They were capitalist nations, for the most part, but what they all had in common was one unfortunate fact. They were oligarchies, or plutocracies, or aristocracies, where roughly one percent of the population controlled well over ninety percent of the wealth. The remaining percentage of the population got the chump change. They were pressed, oppressed, repressed, and depressed, until they finally pressed back.
There has never been a truly democratic nation, with an inclusive atmosphere for opportunity for economic advancement, with fairness and the rule of law, which went communist.
No, Western Europe and it’s socialist economic policies don’t count, for the simple reason that the United States has enabled this by taking care of their defensive needs, thereby freeing the economies of Western Europe to engage in such interesting social experiments as socialized medicine and other cradle to the grave entitlements.
Nor do the allegedly socialist policies and entitlements of the United States qualify as “communist”. Some have made the point that such policies are leading the way toward communism, but if the US or for that matter Western Europe ever does phase into this brand of jack-boot socialism, it will be a first in world history.
Again, it has never happened before.
What could happen, however, are such profound adaptations of “libertarian” economic policies and a total scrapping of any kind of oversight or regulation of big business or corporate interests in any form, that the US might eventually wake up one day to find itself the exact type of nation where a Chavez or a Castro is easily incubated.
Such examples are seemingly endless of nations that became serfdoms in all but name. All of them were comprised of a small but powerful minority of people that enslaved the masses of their populations. This is the case now in Mexico, which is ruled by a small group of white families who are generally the descendants of the old Spanish conquistadors.
The vast remainder of the population of Mexico, made up of Indians and Mestizos, and other mixed race groups, doubtless considered sub-human by the ruling overlords, find themselves out in the economic cold, reduced to crime if they ever want more than subsistence level life. For the most part, they cannot leave Mexico fast enough to suit them, or to suit the ruling elites there, which the US props up, practically subsidizing them with loans and trade agreements that benefit them to the detriment of American workers and their own population.
As it stands now, Mexico could easily become a communist nation, just as Venezuela, which had the same kind of society pre-Chavez.
That is the same kind of society the anti-Chavez crowd seems to wants here in America, if you believe their rhetoric about ending all regulations and oversight of business, and about how we should otherwise “allow the market forces to work”.
Think it could not happen here? Think again. It happens every time a corporation strong-arms a politician for ever more tax breaks, while insisting the middle class pay for the wars that are for the most part to their immediate benefit, and are in a good many cases outright promoted by them.
It happens every time an American company funnels it’s assets to offshore accounts with the tacit assistance and culpability of the very politicians whose job description is laughably the protection of the interests of ALL Americans.
It happens every time they move their operations to foreign countries where they can access workers at slave wages-or when they threaten to do so.
It happen every time they deny workers benefits, and even oppose minimum wages increases, the very things that actually built the American middle class along with the greatest economic engine in the history of the world.
Yet, no matter how often they are granted these concessions, under the illusion that “a rising tide lifts all boats”, the working people never seem to benefit. They don’t get a fucking boat. They are lucky to get a life jacket. Nevertheless, the market forces guru continue to dish out the same tired rhetoric.
Just a few more years and things will get better for everybody. Maybe in another five years. Or ten. Or twenty. Or thirty. Or forty. Or fifty. Or sixty. We have more research and development we have to conduct. We have more advertising we have to purchase. We have to remain competitive, otherwise one of those “other guys” will beat us out. Just let us make a few more billion so our investors will be happy, and we will eventually do right by you. If you get sick, or a family member dies, believe us, we are sympathetic. We will even send a basket of fruit to your home. Please don’t be greedy. We have children to send to Harvard, and to buy the best medical care and insurance for. Be reasonable. Think of our families, who we must be sure is worthy of carrying on the family tradition. We have to make sure they are smart enough to reign over you. Lead the country, we mean.
That would be the most likely immediate fate of the United States of America. Our version of Chavez would not come about until later, if he ever did. By then, the laissez-faire market advocates would be long dead and gone of course, after living a life of comfort and in some cases wealthy excess at the expense of the great-unwashed multitudes of serfs. That is the most self-serving thing about their position.
They by all rights should be around to see through their decapitated heads, for the last ten seconds or so of consciousness, the site of the crowds cheering at the site of their bulging eyes and bloody hacked necks. It would only be fair.
Unfortunately, life, like servitude under any system, is seldom fair.
The China Syndrome
The Chinese have been rather heavy handed lately in their dealings with certain of their nouveau riche citizens who have decided the laws should not apply to them. If they want more than one child they will have them, they seem to have decided. They have the money to take care of them, so why not?
The government’s answer-we will just have to take that property. So there!
The conservatives here have always pointed to China’s one child per couple law as an example of the totalitarian brutality of the communist regime, while at the same time agonizing over their more worrisome policies. Their massive population, at roughly one and a third billion, is the reason for the law. It is also the reason that, in the face of economic expansion and industrial development, they have developed an insatiable appetite for oil, one that grows harder to satisfy over time.
Due to this, they see no reason to impose sanctions on the government of Sudan-where a large part of their oil supply comes from- over the treatment of the citizens of Darfur. Similarly, they can be relied upon to oppose any similar such actions against Iran, whether such are needed or not, based solely on this need.
Add to this their ever-expanding military budget and the potential for a diplomatic and possibly even a military confrontation over the Korean peninsula or Taiwan.
Throw in their questionable at best trade practices, and simmer in a stew of their loathsome human rights abuses.
Add a dash or two of government censorship and laws against religious and political rights and freedom of the press and expression.
Baste in a savory sauce of heavy-handed micromanagement of all aspects of Chinese culture and day-to-day life.
Throw out the fortune cookie- you don’t need it to see that there is palpable cause for alarm at their massive growth and political and diplomatic influence in the world.
It is all together a recipe for a potential disaster.
Why then is there all this concern from the American right about their one child per couple policy? All things considered, I applaud their insight and determination, and their realistic assessment of their predicament. It seems cold and brutal now, of course, but if they did not undertake this approach, what might be the long-term result, not only for themselves, but for the world?
I might even go so far as to suggest that they take it a step further. Ratchet it up a notch or two. Announce a ban on all childbirths. No children whatsoever, in other words, for anyone. That way, they would arrive at their population reduction goals even faster.
It would only be a temporary mandate, of course, one of limited duration. I would say that-oh, maybe about sixty years ought to do it.
The government’s answer-we will just have to take that property. So there!
The conservatives here have always pointed to China’s one child per couple law as an example of the totalitarian brutality of the communist regime, while at the same time agonizing over their more worrisome policies. Their massive population, at roughly one and a third billion, is the reason for the law. It is also the reason that, in the face of economic expansion and industrial development, they have developed an insatiable appetite for oil, one that grows harder to satisfy over time.
Due to this, they see no reason to impose sanctions on the government of Sudan-where a large part of their oil supply comes from- over the treatment of the citizens of Darfur. Similarly, they can be relied upon to oppose any similar such actions against Iran, whether such are needed or not, based solely on this need.
Add to this their ever-expanding military budget and the potential for a diplomatic and possibly even a military confrontation over the Korean peninsula or Taiwan.
Throw in their questionable at best trade practices, and simmer in a stew of their loathsome human rights abuses.
Add a dash or two of government censorship and laws against religious and political rights and freedom of the press and expression.
Baste in a savory sauce of heavy-handed micromanagement of all aspects of Chinese culture and day-to-day life.
Throw out the fortune cookie- you don’t need it to see that there is palpable cause for alarm at their massive growth and political and diplomatic influence in the world.
It is all together a recipe for a potential disaster.
Why then is there all this concern from the American right about their one child per couple policy? All things considered, I applaud their insight and determination, and their realistic assessment of their predicament. It seems cold and brutal now, of course, but if they did not undertake this approach, what might be the long-term result, not only for themselves, but for the world?
I might even go so far as to suggest that they take it a step further. Ratchet it up a notch or two. Announce a ban on all childbirths. No children whatsoever, in other words, for anyone. That way, they would arrive at their population reduction goals even faster.
It would only be a temporary mandate, of course, one of limited duration. I would say that-oh, maybe about sixty years ought to do it.
Falwell From Heaven
Disclaimer-my former best friend from years past is the son of a man who now sits on the board of Liberty University. As such, I can personally attest to the fact that, yes, these folks really do believe, for the most part, the things they say. You can take that for what it’s worth.
I waited some time to comment on the passing of Jerry Falwell, as it would have been too easy for me to launch into a tirade about some of his more odious pronouncements. After all, I am one of those pagans who, in regards to 9/11, “helped this to happen”, as he put it.
Aside from this, my main objection to the man is not his belief in Christianity, with all its attendant insistences that it is the "only way to heaven". All conservative Christians pretty much believe that anyway. I have gotten used to that by now.
No, my main objection to him would stem from his opposition to free speech as evidenced by his suit against Larry Flint, over an admittedly gross parody in which Falwell was portrayed as engaging in a drunken and incestuous relationship with his own mother, in an outhouse at that. Yet, it was an obvious parody that was never intended to be taken seriously. It was actually a cartoon ad parody concerning a brand of liquor.
Falwell lost the suit, and the entire, actually somewhat ridiculous episode, was enshrined in the Woody Harrelson film, The People versus Larry Flint.
Pretty much anything else I would have to say negative about him would not involve any of his beliefs, either his religious or spiritual ones, so much as his seeming willingness to accede to limits to the rights of those who disagreed with him within the public arena. That, however, is an easily arrived at assumption, one that he himself actually denied.
He denied many such things, of course, and backtracked on many statements that he was legitimately criticized about. It can all be summed up with the observation that Falwell was by nature an ordinary kind of man, who in the face of constant media exposure and publicity said a lot of things that were thoughtless and even stupid, and in many cases realized this as well as anyone. Most of us would probably have the same problem, if we were to find ourselves in a similarly constant spotlight.
On the other hand, maybe he knew exactly what he was doing when he said these things, and tried to have it both ways, pleasing his base of supporters while then thinking of ways to reassure those who might have been legitimately offended.
He has been called a true man of God, and a hypocrite. Could he possibly have been both? I have to wonder. Maybe, maybe not would be my ultimate decision. Seeing as I never believed in a perfect god, that is not a contradictory position.
What I do know is I am an adherent to one version of a principle by which, if you say something bad about the deceased, you should find something good to say about him as well. And so, here goes:
And no, what is about to follow is not numerous lines of blank space. What is about to follow is, however, fairly brief. Brief, but significant.
Falwell did not believe in abortion, and was a fierce opponent of abortion rights, at least of the Supreme Court decision of Roe v.Wade. He would in time come to moderate his position, on at least one occasion anyway, with the statement that abortion in the case of rape, incest, and the life of the mother might be acceptable.
However, in this instance, regarding his anti-abortion position, he put his and his parishioners money where his and their mouths were. He founded a home for pregnant unwed mothers, geared especially toward unwed pregnant teen girls, so that they might have their children in a safe and healthy environment, and would then work to find suitable adoptive parents for the infants.
More importantly, he provided a bulwark against an increasingly nutty political environment that has lasted to this day.
He stood up for the rights of Christians to worship in the public arena without being harassed. Well, after all, that was his base of support, so why not?
He also stood up to the nonsensical cultural climate that has evolved, where every word is subject to scrutiny and a charge of latent racism or bigotry, and any terminology used in public discourse must past a litmus test of cultural sensitivity and inclusiveness.
He was unabashedly pro-American, and though we might have been at odds concerning when was the proper time to conduct a war and against whom, I can appreciate his belief that, when there was a war, it should be fought with the kid gloves off.
He also stood up to the more unreasonable aspects of Democratic party politics, against such policies as, for example, gun control, and other similarly misguided nonsense.
In fact, Falwell may have more than any other single individual been the reason these policies were reversed, in some cases before they might have done real and permanent damage.
When I think of some of these more positive aspects of his contributions to public life, I can easily forgive a lot of the more negative ones. In fact, I consider the trade-off in the long run a positive.
I waited some time to comment on the passing of Jerry Falwell, as it would have been too easy for me to launch into a tirade about some of his more odious pronouncements. After all, I am one of those pagans who, in regards to 9/11, “helped this to happen”, as he put it.
Aside from this, my main objection to the man is not his belief in Christianity, with all its attendant insistences that it is the "only way to heaven". All conservative Christians pretty much believe that anyway. I have gotten used to that by now.
No, my main objection to him would stem from his opposition to free speech as evidenced by his suit against Larry Flint, over an admittedly gross parody in which Falwell was portrayed as engaging in a drunken and incestuous relationship with his own mother, in an outhouse at that. Yet, it was an obvious parody that was never intended to be taken seriously. It was actually a cartoon ad parody concerning a brand of liquor.
Falwell lost the suit, and the entire, actually somewhat ridiculous episode, was enshrined in the Woody Harrelson film, The People versus Larry Flint.
Pretty much anything else I would have to say negative about him would not involve any of his beliefs, either his religious or spiritual ones, so much as his seeming willingness to accede to limits to the rights of those who disagreed with him within the public arena. That, however, is an easily arrived at assumption, one that he himself actually denied.
He denied many such things, of course, and backtracked on many statements that he was legitimately criticized about. It can all be summed up with the observation that Falwell was by nature an ordinary kind of man, who in the face of constant media exposure and publicity said a lot of things that were thoughtless and even stupid, and in many cases realized this as well as anyone. Most of us would probably have the same problem, if we were to find ourselves in a similarly constant spotlight.
On the other hand, maybe he knew exactly what he was doing when he said these things, and tried to have it both ways, pleasing his base of supporters while then thinking of ways to reassure those who might have been legitimately offended.
He has been called a true man of God, and a hypocrite. Could he possibly have been both? I have to wonder. Maybe, maybe not would be my ultimate decision. Seeing as I never believed in a perfect god, that is not a contradictory position.
What I do know is I am an adherent to one version of a principle by which, if you say something bad about the deceased, you should find something good to say about him as well. And so, here goes:
And no, what is about to follow is not numerous lines of blank space. What is about to follow is, however, fairly brief. Brief, but significant.
Falwell did not believe in abortion, and was a fierce opponent of abortion rights, at least of the Supreme Court decision of Roe v.Wade. He would in time come to moderate his position, on at least one occasion anyway, with the statement that abortion in the case of rape, incest, and the life of the mother might be acceptable.
However, in this instance, regarding his anti-abortion position, he put his and his parishioners money where his and their mouths were. He founded a home for pregnant unwed mothers, geared especially toward unwed pregnant teen girls, so that they might have their children in a safe and healthy environment, and would then work to find suitable adoptive parents for the infants.
More importantly, he provided a bulwark against an increasingly nutty political environment that has lasted to this day.
He stood up for the rights of Christians to worship in the public arena without being harassed. Well, after all, that was his base of support, so why not?
He also stood up to the nonsensical cultural climate that has evolved, where every word is subject to scrutiny and a charge of latent racism or bigotry, and any terminology used in public discourse must past a litmus test of cultural sensitivity and inclusiveness.
He was unabashedly pro-American, and though we might have been at odds concerning when was the proper time to conduct a war and against whom, I can appreciate his belief that, when there was a war, it should be fought with the kid gloves off.
He also stood up to the more unreasonable aspects of Democratic party politics, against such policies as, for example, gun control, and other similarly misguided nonsense.
In fact, Falwell may have more than any other single individual been the reason these policies were reversed, in some cases before they might have done real and permanent damage.
When I think of some of these more positive aspects of his contributions to public life, I can easily forgive a lot of the more negative ones. In fact, I consider the trade-off in the long run a positive.
The Return Of Doctor Death
Hey, have ya heard, Doctor Jack Kevorkian -“Doctor Death”- has been released from prison after a eight year stint. Seems like it’s been longer than that, but anyway-
What will he do now? Will he make the rounds of all the talk shows? Will he write a book? Appear on the lecture circuit? A contestant on “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader”? If he does that last he might not do so good, as it takes a moron to openly flout the law and film yourself doing it, and then release the film to the press.
I don’t think he’ll be doing that anymore, which is a shame. I have no doubt that in at least some cases he provided a valuable service to some patients that really, honestly didn’t have any hope of living their final days pain free. And I’m talking real pain, from debilitating illnesses, not the dull toothache or earache kind of pain which, when you stop to think about it, are worthy of suicide themselves if there was never any hope of an end to it.
But Doctor Death had to be a showboat to make a point, and so I figure his death dealing days are over. Until, that is, it gets to the point he might avail himself of his own services.
If so, he might be well advised to not inject himself in the ass. Seeing as where he's been spending the last eight years,he might miss if he's not careful. He might even lose the needle.
What will he do now? Will he make the rounds of all the talk shows? Will he write a book? Appear on the lecture circuit? A contestant on “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader”? If he does that last he might not do so good, as it takes a moron to openly flout the law and film yourself doing it, and then release the film to the press.
I don’t think he’ll be doing that anymore, which is a shame. I have no doubt that in at least some cases he provided a valuable service to some patients that really, honestly didn’t have any hope of living their final days pain free. And I’m talking real pain, from debilitating illnesses, not the dull toothache or earache kind of pain which, when you stop to think about it, are worthy of suicide themselves if there was never any hope of an end to it.
But Doctor Death had to be a showboat to make a point, and so I figure his death dealing days are over. Until, that is, it gets to the point he might avail himself of his own services.
If so, he might be well advised to not inject himself in the ass. Seeing as where he's been spending the last eight years,he might miss if he's not careful. He might even lose the needle.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Radu-Part One Of A Novel By Patrick Kelley
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