Hugo Chavez Evil Knievel

While everyone was looking for Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to seize the headlines, our Chimp-in-Chief receives a dressing down from Venezuelan upstart Hugo Chavez like no one has ever dared address the Emperor before. Not just calling Bush the Devil, but fleshing it out, “it still smells of sulphur in here.”

These words come of course from one of the axis of evils. Evil here being confused for the global justice movement, which seeks equitable rights for all human beings. To an industrialist landlord such a prospect probably does sound evil.

The most successful purveyors of this evil ideology in the last century were Mahatma Gandhi, Fidel Castro, and Nelson Mandela, among others, and most recently Subcommandante Marcos, Hugo Chavez and Eva Morales. There have been more who have been unfortunately crushed like flies.

Hugo Chavez fashions himself after the great populist liberator of the Americas, Simon Bolivar.
That’s about as boastful as, say, George W. Bush telling us the W stands for Washington. But Venezuela’s got the oil, and Hugo Chavez has the love of his people. A liberator for the Americas he may be. Let’s hope he means to save our America as well.

Personality types

You’ve known me for 25 years and still I am a complete enigma to you? I’ve slept in your bed, given birth to your children, spent countless evenings watching the Cubs lose, folding laundry, tending house with you. You’ve known me since I was driving a (very cool I must say) green Camaro in high school. For crying out loud, we’ve grown up together! We’ve shared a life that no one else will ever be part of.

You tell me that you loved me, that you poured yourself out for me, bled for me even, and all I see is an aloof and unreasonable dickhead. I’ll tell you that I tried to be pretty and intelligent and in control, perfect and accomplished in every way, but you see a tragically flawed and irrational human being. I’m all about a lively battle between the sexes, but this is ridiculous! There must be something else afoot.

Well, here is our long-awaited chance to thank the Junior League. Well-groomed women wearing pearls have taught me something that I will forever remember and appreciate always. It’s not about the externals, the things that make us look like a great pair. It’s not about how smart we are, or how funny, or how attractive or talented. It’s about the inner sanctum…the sacred and holy place that makes us US. It’s how we perceive the world, how we process information, what we value.

You are an extrovert. You get energy and inspiration in the presence of other people. I am highly introverted. I may look like the life of the party but I spend three days alone in a closet after a backyard barbeque to re-energize myself.

You are sensory. You feel fantastic after an intense game of yard darts, the sun overhead, the wind at your back…You hike mountains, you travel…you pay attention to the outside world. I am intuitive….I live inside my head. I can easily content myself on a blanket alone watching, feeling elated and peaceful…knowing that everyone is having a great time and that this is a lovely slice of life. I’d be the happiest quadriplegic on the planet….so unimportant is the sensory to me.

You are a thinker, you follow your head, you’re comfortable with the impersonal, the exacting. I am a feeler…I follow my heart, I’m in touch with the personal and the emotional. I cannot divorce myself from the inner life….matters of the heart…the divine. You easily can. Here’s the solution, you say. TaDa!

You rely on knowledge and information to make a judgment. You feel a sense of urgency until a decision is made, you like to tie up loose ends. My reality is based on perception, facts be damned! I keep my eyes open and look for alternatives…I am spontaneous and in no hurry to resolve things.

No wonder we can’t work it out. We live in the same world, yet it is a world completely apart. We love the same children but view them in very divergent ways. We encounter the same problems yet our solutions are diametrically opposed. On many days, we don’t speak the same language at all.

I am an idealist….I’m enthusiastic, loving, giving, spiritual, nurturing, focused on personal journeys and human potential. I have a deep commitment to the positive. You are a rational….you are self-controlled, logical, pragmatic…you have incredible strength of character and are decisive and autonomous.

Here is the funny part. You need me. You need me to give you vision, to give you wings, to keep you human and relational. And I need you…to keep me grounded, to keep me sane, to appeal to reason and make me strong.

I think we did our best to work things out. We didn’t understand each other….we still don’t. I’ve now chosen a new mate. Guess what? He’s a lot like you. He’s rational and logical but softer and more accessible than you were. At least I hope so. And you’ve chosen a new mate. She’s pretty and kind but more rational and exacting than I am.

So maybe we’re wiser. Time will tell, I guess. But I know one thing…..there is no one that I would rather have been linked to for the past 25 years than you. No one that I would rather share parenting duties with than you. My love and respect for you is undiminished. I am incomplete without your guidance and strength. You are still my better half.

Eyes Wide Open exhibit coming October 12-13

Coming to Colorado College Armstrong QuadWe’ve asked the Colorado Springs City Council for the use of Memorial Park for this memorial. We’ve also asked for a formal city proclamation, that October 12 and 13 be officially declared “days of reflection on the human cost of war.” Regardless of their answer, it’s coming.

At the ceremony, we’ll read the names of the 2,700 Americans who have been killed in Iraq, among them 170 from Fort Carson. CSAction put together a list: 1st Lt. Michael R. Adams, Spc. Ronald D. Allen, Pfc. Elden D. Arcand, Staff Sgt. Daniel A. Bader, Staff Sgt. Stephen A. Bertolino, Spc. Hoby F. Bradfield, Spc. Joshua T. Brazee, Staff Sgt. Scottie L. Bright, Sgt. Thomas F. Broomhead, Staff Sgt. Jeremy a. Brown, Sgt. Ernest G. Bucklew, Spc. Brock L. Bucklin, Capt. Joshua T. Byers, Cpl. Lyle J. Cambridge, Cpl. Richard P. Carl, Sgt. Tyrone L. Chisolm, Cpl. Gary B. Coleman, Spc. Ernest W. Dallas, Pfc. Grant A. Dampier, 1st Lt. Joseph D. deMoors, Spc. Michael A. Diraimondo, Sgt. Micheal E. Dooley, Sgt. 1st Class Donald W. Eacho, Spc. Phillip C. Edmundson, Capt. Brian Faunce, Spc. Rian C. Ferguson, Master Sgt. Richard L. Ferguson, Staff Sgt. Marion J. Flint, Pvt. Benjamin L. Freeman, Staff Sgt. Brian L. Freeman, Sgt. Denis J. Gallardo, Pfc. Jesse A. Givens, Spc. Christopher A. Golby, Spc. David J. Goldberg, Capt. Sean Grimes, Chief Warrant Officer Hans N. Gukeisen, Chief Warrant Officer Dennis P. Hay, Master Sgt. Kelly L. Hornbeck, Spc. Christopher L. Hoskins, Staff Sgt. Curtis T. Howard, Spc. Walter B. Howard, Spc. Nicholas R. Idalski, Spc. Darius T. Jennings, CWO Philip A. Johnson, Kendall, Cpl. Dustin L. Johnson, Spc. Anthony D. Kinslow, Pvt. Joseph L. Knott, Spc. Jared W. Kubasak, Sgt. Larry R. Kuhns, Maj Douglas A. La Bouff, CWO Matthew C. Laskowski, Staff Sgt. William T. Latham, Pfc. Vorn J. Mack, Pfc. Nicholas A. Madaras, CWO Ian D. Manuel, Spc. Joseph L. Martinez, Capt. Michael R. Martinez, Cpl. Stephen M. McGowan, Staff Sgt. Frederick L. Miller, Sgt. Gordon F. Misner, Sgt. Keman L. Mitchell, Staff Sgt. Jason W. Montefering, Sgt. Milton M. Monzon, Spc. Jose L. Mora, Staff Sgt. Brian L. Morris, Sgt. James P. Muldoon, Pfc. Robert W. Murray, Sgt. Dimitri Muscat, Sgt. Julio E. Negron, Spc. Louis E. Niedermeier, Capt. Eric T. Paliwoda, Staff Sgt. Dale A. Panchot, Sgt. 1st Class Eric P. Pearrow, Spc. Brian H. Penisten, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher W. Phelps, Spc. Eric J. Poelman, Staff Sgt. Andrew R. Pokorny, Spc. Justin W. Pollard, Spc. Robert C. Pope, Sgt. 1st Class Neil A. Prince, Staff Sgt. Michael B. Quinn, Spc. Tamarra Ramos, Pfc. Mario A. Reyes, Spc. Lizbeth Robles, Spc. Ricky W. Rockholt, 2nd Lt. Charles R. Rubado, Staff Sgt. Alberto V. Sanchez, Spc. Luis D. Santos, Sgt. Stephen P. Saxton, Maj. Mathew E. Schram, Spc. Stephen M. Scott, Sgt. Jacob M. Simpson, 1st. Lt. Justin S. Smith, Spc. Michael J. Smith, Pfc. Armando Soriano, Sgt. Timothy J. Sutton, Pfc. Robert A. Swaney, Spc. Wade Michael Twyman, Pfc. Brian S. Ulbrich, Sgt. Melissa Valles, Chief Warrant Officer Brian K. Van Dusen, Staff Sgt. Justin L. Vasquez, Spc. Brian A. Vaughn, Pfc. Ramon A. Villatoro, Sgt. Antwan L. Walker, CWO Stephen M. Wells, Sgt. Charles T. Wilkerson, Cpl. Jeffrey A. Williams, Spc. Ronnie D. Williams, Sgt. Taft V. Williams, Spc. Thomas J. Wilwerth, Spc. James R. Wolf, Pfc. Eric P. Woods, and Sgt. James R. Worster

Bush and the former mayor of Tehran

Revolutionaries escorting CIA from US embassyThis is just RICH! Another headline! Bush and his Iranian nemisis to address the U.N. on the same day. Bush determined to avoid Ahmadinejad in the hallway! AND HOW!
 
Bush’s people don’t want to make an issue of the two meeting, although if Ahmadinejad approaches, “nobody’s going to body-block” him. Talk about giving diplomacy a chance.

Of the man who leads Iran, the nation which has been the demon of Bush’s preoccupation and the focus of Bush’s address to the General Assembly, Bush aids don’t want to accord Ahmadinejad so much importance. “We’re talking about the former mayor of Tehran here.”

Really. And Bush is what? A former what?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was among the former Revolutionary Guard student leaders who seized the American embassy in Tehran and precipitated the fall of the Shah and the end of US influence in Persia.

Bush was what? What? Oil man? Sports team owner? Alcoholic until he was 40? Maybe drinks still? Draft dodger of the blue-blood sort, dodged even his Reservist duty? Cocaine dealer in college, busted and sentenced to community service when others served long prison sentences? What? He won’t deign to meet with a former mayor of Tehran?

Ahmadinejad may be mouthing off too much for everyone’s comfort, but he has also singlehandedly brought the question of Israel’s legitimacy in the Middle East back to the discussion of a resolution in Palestine.

Ahmadinejad made minced meat of Mike Wallace in his CBS interview, in spite of the fact that 60-Minutes had control of the editing. I’m reluctant to mention Ahmadinejad and Saddam Hussein in the same sentence, but the Iranian president’s interview reminded me of Saddam’s talk with Dan Rather. The soon to be toppled dictator ran circles around our boy Dan. One rarely sees presidents measured up against journalists. Both are bright, but the brilliance required of a self-made statesman becomes pretty self evidence.

Now let’s talk about George Bush. Bush can’t even be interviewed by an informal commission without being accompanied by Dick Cheney. The vice-president’s nickname in CIA circles is “Edgar.” The best guess is that Edgar is a reference to Edgar Bergen, father of Candice Bergen and beloved ventriloquist to his wooden chum Charley McCarthy. Would Bush be the dummy “Charley?” Is that too much of a stretch?

Bush can’t handle a debate without an electronic prompter, nor a speech without someone feeding him his lines. That’s why he pauses between phrases. We know the routine from weddings: repeat after me: to have and to hold, to have and to hold, till death do us part, till death do us part, amen, amen. Bush can’t even handle an audience that isn’t vetted of just the hardcore ditto-heads.

White house officials are saying it is Ahmadinejad who is eager to avoid coming face to face with Bush. He’d come out at a disadvantage they say “because he’s shorter than Bush.” Really now? Shorter than Bush? I don’t even believe that.

Protesters riot after prime minister admits to lying

Get ahold of this headline: “Protesters riot after prime minister admits to lying.” Angry Hungarians set afire the state TV station upon learning that their Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany had lied to them, in his words, “morning, evening and night.” What’s in their coffee? And can we get some?

Pinon Canyon land grab

150 million year old dinosaur tracksThe US Army at Fort Carson is trying to annex a million acres of Southeastern Colorado to test its new weapons. The area is called Pinon Canyon and contains the longest extant dinosaur tracks anywhere. The 150 million year-old Allosaur and Brontosaur tracks extend one quarter mile along the Purgatory River.

Come to the Colorado College meeting tonight, Tuesday September 19 at WES hall to learn how we can fight it.

Discovery Channel editorial interest

My first brush with the Discovery Channel came when contemplating which cable stations would be considered kid suitable. The Discovery Channel seemed one of the few obvious shoe-ins. Along with Disney…
 
I remember looking over the kids’ shoulders at some of the Discovery programming. Not necessarily for kids, and not necessarily informative. Make-over shows? Decorating? Are they interested in the Discovery of everything? Crown molding?

After Disney’s Corporation’s unwavering support for the yellow GOP Path to 9/11, it became time to question what Disney is doing, and what might they be feeding our kids?

Remember the disquieting implication of Lion King? Monarchy (and monotheism) as the natural order? Now that odd acculturation is not looking very haphazard.

Running opposite Path to 9/11 was Koppel on Discovery: the Price of Security. If absent the anti-Democrat partisanship, its tone was still very pro-establishment. Marvel at the pyrotechnics, question nothing. Discovery (Only four letters of separation from Disney) is corporate media, after all, and like National Geographic and Disney, considered subliminally above reproach.

Then I saw the new Discovery documentary about Waco. Not the city formally known as Waco, the Mount Carmel inferno now known as “Waco.” This time, Discover the truth: Assault on Waco with everything learned post-1993 reclassified. What up Discovery?

As if the media had not sufficiently contained the story while it happened, soon after they fixed it from any further development with the official verson Ambush in Waco.

After Branch Davidian survivors made their individual ways across the university lecture circuit, another side of the story began to emerge. Incredible government lies were exposed in the 1997 award-winning documentary Waco: the Rules of Engagement. Further disturbing revelations emerged in the 1999 Waco, a New Revelation.

Thirteen years later, under a new administration, with a madman of another sort in Waco, under “the shadow of 9/11” and rationalizations being made for an authoritarian federal dictatorship, the folks at Discovery Channel want to exculpate the original feds-gone-wild? Now that we have an executive branch breaking the law, Discovery Channel wants to revisit past transgressions and make them right?
 
What next? Ruby Ridge: ballistic foster-child making? The Philadelphia Move: fiery urban renewal? Vietnam: should we have killed more of them? Elections 2000-04: benevolent despotism in action?
  When citizens still thought the media could be on their side

A Second Life design special order

The D-Type Jaguar by AutoartIn the virtual world of Second Life you can have whatever you want. It’s a Sims world where you can show everyone what you’d like to have in your first life if you could afford it. It’s conspicuous would-be consumption.

The limit? What money you’re willing to fork over for a a virtual piece of the rock, and the time and skill you’re willing to put into showing off. SL is a perfect fit for graphic artists: designers, architects or programmers. Those of us in need of those skills in the virtual showcase can hire them. I’ve seen some incredible objects in Second Life, fantastic houses, super sleek planes, even a submarine. Super modern conveyances, but I haven’t seen the perfect car.

What would make the ideal car in SL, a virtual world without physical constraints, where you can’t even enjoy the ride?

In Second Life, transport itself is a non-starter. In SL you can teleport anywhere, you can breath underwater, and you can fly. The sharper homes don’t even bother with stairs or elevators, of what purpose is any vehicle? What purpose? the aforementioned got-one factor.

The ultimate SL ride is therefore no debate. It’s the Jaguar D-type. Only six were ever built. Fresh out of the factory they placed first, second and fourth in the 1956 Le Mans. The next year race organizers had to limit the engine size to prevent another Jaguar rout. The 12-cylinder D-type combined unbriddled power and unfettered racing lines, never to be surpassed. The Jaguar’s dark green paint job defined England’s Racing Green.

I bet when you close your eyes and picture the primordial race car, whether on a slot car track, a hotweels loop, or a cross-country rally, it’s the D-type off-center fin you see behind a helmeted man with goggles. The precurser to everybody’s favorite Jaguar, the (E-type) XKE, emulated by the Corvette, the Dino, the GT, the Viper, and the 280Z, was the Jaguar D-type.

If in Second Life you can have anything, what kind of male could you possibly be without that car?

Gay marriage

Lovely coupleWho says gays and lesbians can’t marry? Of course they can marry. They absolutely can. They simply have to marry EACH OTHER! C’mon gay men, admit it, a large athletic woman around the house would come in DAMN HANDY! Lawn mowing, house painting, lightbulb changing…not to mention protection from would-be muggers. And you dykes. Fashion advice? Culinary prowess? Feng Shui? Sounds brilliant to me!

Things in the boudoir won’t be that thrilling you say? Oh, grow UP! Even straight couples get bored after a year or two. Is sexual incompatibility enough reason to deep six an otherwise beautiful union? I think not.

Surely I jest. Take heart! You’ve made some headway here. A majority of the American public supports the idea of legal civil unions for gay and lesbian pairs. Civil unions would give you many of the rights and responsibilities associated with traditional marriage. The sticking point seems to be the idea of full-fledged “marriage.”

Once again, falling back on my handy Catholic upbringing, I’ll shed a bit of light on this. Marriage is considered by many to have spiritual significance in addition to its legal ramifications. To most it is a sacrament which, in Latin, means “something holy.” It is a visible sign, in the form of a religious ceremony, of invisible grace–God’s protection and favor. Christians, most notably Roman Catholics, believe that all seven sacraments were instituted by Jesus in the New Testament.

True or not, this explains why, according to a recent poll, 54% of Americans favor gay civil unions while only 35% support gay marriage. Most Christians, and fully 84% of Americans identify themselves as Christian while 60% identify as “committed Christian” (the scarier ones) are not going to be easily convinced, if they can EVER be convinced, that God is prepared to confer his special favor on a homosexual union. They are okay if the state confers a little of ITS protection and favor…but God Almighty? NO WAY.

So I’m sorry, gays and lesbians, I know that you would love to feel that God approves of your lifestyle…but asking me to give you a legal/spiritual rite of passage is actually asking for MY approval. There are quite a few who, like me, don’t feel comfortable speaking for God. So please don’t ask us what he thinks. Take it up with him privately. If he’s the God that I think he is, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

Now, in the spirit of cooperation, I have something to ask of you too. Would you please STOP TALKING about gay marriage already! Especially in an election year. You are scaring people right into the big flabby bosom of the GOP by allowing them to portray the Democratic party as the gay marriage party! The anti-family values party! You’re taking the focus off of the war in Iraq, off poverty, off education, race relations, welfare reform, healthcare, global warming…the crazy cowboy in the White House. Let me tell you, the Republicans are lovin’ you for it! So please please please take civil unions for the time being and shut the hell up.

Under thumb

Under the thumb of remedial thinking. I guess we all have to learn what that’s like. That’s life, but does it have to be? It’s corporate and servile. It’s life of diminished expectation.
 
I met an elementary school principal today who was quite proud of having placed her thumbprint, in just a couple weeks, on the tone of a new school.

She stood before the parents at back-to-school-night, most of whom were unaware of the recent changes. If they had noticed the kids art gone from the walls, or heard from their children about the orderly quiet that has overcome lunch hour, or about the segregated recesses, or about the now cancelled weekly school rallies, or about the new austerity in the hallways, they’d come to see who was behind it.

The new principal wanted to explain some of her measures. “Safe Hands” for example, is a rule for groups of children walking through the halls. Students must now keep their hands clasped behind their backs. “Have you ever seen ten year olds walking down a hallway?” She meant to imply bedlam like it was last season’s lapel. The point she made to me was more telling: she is such a person as cannot handle youthful chaos. Mmm okay.

It would appear for this school year at least the kids are stuck with an overly assertive unimaginative authority figure. What had been a successful little school with a fun social environment is going to be something else.

The principal explained that her summer reading had consisted of the previous year’s comments from parents who wanted to see a different direction from their new administrator. Thus the squeaky wheel got the grease and the vast majority of parents who have been happy, even thrilled, with their little school, were hit and run underfoot.

The lesson here is the usual reminder for eternal vigilance. Don’t take for granted that newcomers can be brought up to speed. If their previous performance does not resemble what you’re after, don’t hire them. Do you want to be magnanimous and give wing to someone’s unproven ambition at your children’s expense?

I asked the principal later if the Safe Hands technique has precedence elsewhere. How orderly must school halls be? For example, is someone elsewhere experimenting with averted eyes, bowed heads, shuffling, maybe ankle restraints? She answered me with a steeled smile and unblinking eyes. Youthful exuberance should be held to limits. Her demeanor reminded me of a junior banker, by the time you see the facade close-up you realize there’s nothing but facade and hairspray.

Oh what a drag for the children. I had teachers like that, I resent them still.

Montreal shooter greeted by police gauntlet

I’ve been waiting for the rest of the story. Here was the original headline: Unidentified shooter kills one, wounds fifteen at a Montreal college, before being killed by a surfeit of policemen who were at the campus on an unrelated matter. If nothing was yet known of the shooter’s identity or purpose, how could reporters know the high concentration of policemen was unrelated?

Fingerprint of the American Chickenhawk

Common response to antiwar protestorsOops, almost didn’t recognize The Finger from this angle because I’m used to it being pointed at me. Hundreds of people drove by as I protested against the war last year (in another city, and the Middle Finger came to symbolize the ‘Fingerprint of the American Coward’ to me.

Remember all those Right Wing bumperstickers of the past with the peace symbol being called the ‘footprint of the American chicken’? These inarticulate dopes now seem to just prefer shooting people-they-don’t-even-know their middle finger! Their veins would pop, and they would usually shout some sort of stupidity like “Get a job”, “Get out of my country”, etc. Often to protesters in their ’60s and ’70s! Comical. Most of these Rightist twits were often quite a bit younger those they were shooting the bird at. Did they care? No….

And they would never get out of their cars and try to hold an intelligent conversation, simply because they were too cowardly and scared to do so. The Middle Finger was simply all they had. Apparently listening to O’Reily, Rush, Boortz, Coulter, etc. just doesn’t prepare the typical American Coward to do much more than insult other folk with that Middle Finger of theirs. Go figure? But what can one expect of those cowards so ready to support killing innocent folk on the other side of the planet?

Yes, the middle finger is truly the modern day Fingerprint of the American Cowardly Chicken. Despite all the urban legends the Right Wing dopers like to repeat, antiwar protesters never ever heaped this sort of abuse on returning Vietnam vets. It was Right Wingers then who physically assauted peaceful protesters that is the true history of what happened Vietnam era. And today, none of us would ever be out there shooting other folk the middle finger like pro-war Rightists often will do today.

Homosexuals that go moo

Buses that go mooDogs that go moo.
 
Are there such things, or is this an analogy? Let’s see, if animals vocalize in order to interact with like animals, isn’t a mooing dog likely to attract only other dogs that moo? And maybe dairy farmers. In any case, they are unlikely to procreate. Instead the dogs will run together in mooing herds.
 
Now where’s the harm in that?

This might be why people are confused by the ad campaign. Is it pro gay marriage? Against? I’d be on board with the gay marriage issue if Republicans weren’t using it to drive simpleton voters away from anti-war and class-war solutions.

What are they trying to say with a dog mooing? That homosexuality is an aberration of nature? That it’s not natural? A dog that moos? Taking it further, how would you explain a natural phenomenon that evolves non-evolving DNA. Seedless watermellon? Not natural.

I don’t think a dog that moos works. Now a dog that swishes? Fantastic. And natural.

No war but class war

Here’s the playground analogy: Say a bully is beating up a little kid. The bully could be the military beating up a nascent democracy, could be Wal-mart beating up its employees, could be Coca-Cola killing labor organizers, could be oil companies heating the globe, whatever.

The teacher is inside the classroom, doesn’t know what’s going on, or maybe sees what’s happening but can’t intercede because the bully is bigger than she. The teacher is the U.N., or justice or the conscience of man.

We are the rest of the children on the playground. By force of our numbers, we could go fetch the teacher, or assert the teacher’s authority. The trouble is, the bully has friends.

The bully’s friends are surrounding the fight so that we don’t see exactly what’s going on. They are gatekeepers to the facts of what is happening and they placate us with a play by play calculated to not quite pique our interest or sympathy. They steer us away from realizing that the poor kid getting beat up is one of us. The friends present the bully as the victim and the victim as the attacker. The gatekeepers look like us, like the more attractive of us. We like them and want to be their friends.

Whatever the analogy, the bully is getting something from the little kid. Lunch money, natural resources, cheap labor, subservience, profit etc. And he shares it with his friends who keep the rest of the kids at bay. It’s a gang of bullies really, but they benefit by pretending they are not working together. Even a large gang of bullies can be brought down by a crowd of ordinary people who see what they are up against. But a bully or two, surrounded by some pretty point men diverting your attention, that’s a difficult game to stop.

The press used to be known as the Fourth Estate. This appellation recognized its potential power, to counter that of the king, the nobles and the merchant estates, and to empower the democratic yearnings of the estate-less: labor, the people.

Capitalism brought the absorption of all the moneyed estates into a single merchant class. Corporate trusts cemented the merchant wealth into a new ruling nobility. And belief that God is on our side ascribes to our leaders to the divine provenance of the First Estate. The Fourth Estate, the enormous merchant enterprise once the great promise of the common people, is now but part of the one reigning Estate. The State.

The press is the mouthpiece for The State, pretending still to look like people like us. Rush Limbaugh, the smart-mouthed fat every-man imbibes $4,000 wines and $300 Cuban cigars.

First thing now to do, first thing, is to quit believing what the press is telling you. They are not your friends.

Pacifism yes victimhood no

Innuendo by inflection

False modulation. Do you hear it? American news reporters and TV anchors have evolved a certain story-teller’s sing-song as they read the news. It’s happened particularly on mainstream television and radio. Do you recognize what I’m talking about?

Contrast this Barney-speak with news as it’s read on DW or the real BBC. (Not BBC the World which is BBC for US consumption.) Elsewhere in the world newscasters still read the news as if they are speaking to adults, as though they were delivering a lecture with intent to communicate.

American newscasters today read the headlines with random inflection and emphasis, meant to keep our attention, as that of babies, but not necessarily to best communicate the facts.

Here’s an example. “There are problems” is fairly self-explanatory. “There ARE problems” means what? Someone says there aren’t problems? There used not to be problems, now there are? The problems are contrary to what you might otherwise be thinking? Who might be thinking? Why?

Such innuendo by inflection confuses the issue. Remember the issue? Problems.

USAFA, I’m glad I knew ya!

pictureAhhh, it’s September again….my favorite time of the year. Lazy Saturday mornings spent in oversized sweatshirts and fluffy slippers, drinking coffee, aspen trees on Cheyenne Mountain clad in autumnal glory, jets practicing for afternoon Air Force football games.

I’ve attended many such games. When the jets fly overhead without warning I feel an incredible patriotic stirring in my loins. The poor unwitting soul seated next to me invariably must endure my tongue in his or her ear and my breathy rendition of Lee Greenwood’s neo-national anthem, Proud to Be An American. Tears stream down my face as I stand up and shout PENIS! PENIS! PENIS! (I think I remember a similarly-named Japanese film from my youth). Could there be anything sexier or more masculine than an F-16 suddenly overtaking me from behind? A Blackhawk helicopter hovering over me quivering, gyrating, rotoring away? A sleek submarine slipping into the murky depths? MY GOD, I don’t even need to sit on the washing machine anymore. The military presence in our town leaves me FULLY SATISFIED.

Unfortunately, I was raised Catholic and was compelled by nuns and priests of dubious character to consider always the plight of my fellow man. Okay….sigh….I’ll give it a shot. I wonder what it costs the taxpayers to bring out the heavy artillery in the name of athletic superiority? How much jet fuel do we have to buy so that the flyboys can do their thing? Is this truly the most expensive pre-game show in the history of college athletics? Shit. At the bottom of my hill are countless families biding their time at Fort Carson while fathers are in Iraq fighting terrorists on behalf of the good ol’ US of A. Families are living paycheck to paycheck….moms are alone making breakfast, lunch, and dinner….helping with homework….singing lullabies….fixing broken cars, peeling paint, fractured bones.

Oh, well. That’s what they signed up for, isn’t it? If it wasn’t military service it would be incarceration. Really. They should just shut their fat yaps and be grateful that Uncle Sam has given them a job at all. Meanwhile I’m going to sit on my deck and watch my protectors doin’ their thing….for you, for me, for the team. Ohhhhh. Mmmmmmm. Ahh, baby….Yes. Yeeessss. TORA! TORA! TORA!

Wrestling with Steve Irwin

Nine lives of the curiousA young friend reminded me today. “You know, I’m still really sad about the Alligator Guy.”
 
Me too. Steve Irwin’s death is sad, and a great loss, but I also feel we may be dishonoring Irwin to feel sad for him.

I wouldn’t pretend to speak for Irwin, nor certainly would I imagine that he wouldn’t have rather avoided the stingray’s barb. I will postulate however that the Alligator Guy died doing what he loved. I will speculate that while Irwin’s dangerous antics appeared effortless to us, no doubt he had a precise understanding of the odds and the risk.

An article written after his death quoted Irwin as having once joked with his producer: if ever one of his stunts proved fatal, “at least it will be on film.” I really have to believe that Steve Irwin braved the odds, and just as bravely met his fate.

I make this point because I think our culture is too ready to drown spiritual identity under the weight of a social mean. We can marvel at Steve Irwin’s individuality but we’ll discount his strength of character as soon as he is not around to surprise us again.

I asked my young friend about another of his heroes, Anakin Skywalker. Why ever would Anakin -with the power of The Force- have turned to the Dark Side?” He informed me: “Because he wanted Padme to live.” Really. Would his princess have accepted being saved if she knew that Anakin would sacrifice his soul?

To read any of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey in George Lucas’ Star Wars tale is to be full of shit. I do so resent this typical reduction of the heroic character. Humanizing the protagonist these days seems to require diminishing the human potential. We’re not talking about a tragic flaw in the Greek sense, we’re talking about the consumer’s creed: I me mine.

In these capitalist times we love the dictum “everybody has his price.” It seems carved in stone like “absolute power corrupts.” I believe it’s not very far removed from the crippling Catholic indoctrination of guilt, that we are all born sinners. I reject that handicap. We each may have our weaknesses, our predilections, our tragic flaws, but we are also what we want to be, and we can be good.

2.
Muslims extremists, I believe, are similarly belittled. A suicide bomber willing to give his or her life for a cause is not by necessity brain-washed or waylaid. Selfless motives do not register with our Culture of Self. Insurgents rising in waves against American firepower, rise against our comprehension. The determination of the Vietcong porters along the Ho Chi Min trail was likewise not something we could easily fathom.

A pacifist friend of mine has a pact with his wife. Both like minded pacifists, they agreed never to resort to lethal force to protect one another. Neither wanted to be saved at the expense of the death of another human being. To act otherwise, while promising a less tragic outcome, would dishonor the path toward which both were committed.

Our culture does not want to honor people’s moral selves. It teaches that everyone, even Anakin, is turnable, as if there is no such thing as a moral compass. We preach morality but fear letting it inhabit individual peoples.

Steve Irwin was not perhaps a moral leader, but he was a hero. His heroism was his irrepressibly adventurous bravery. Now, it may be best for young minds to believe that Alligator Guy died instantaneously without suffering, but I read something more happened. Irwin’s companions say that after he was struck, they watched him pull the barb from his chest and look at it as he slowly lost consciousness. I don’t need to see the footage, but I’d like to face the reality of Steve Irwin’s death as he did. With curiosity and bravery.

Our prison system

Returning home from Aspen recently, I drove by the state correctional facility in Buena Vista. My blood sugar was a bit low at the time and I had an epiphany of epic proportions. The individuals incarcerated in those ugly buildings aren’t criminals. No, not at all. They are simply victims of POOR NUTRITION! Show me a man who ate lots of Wonder Bread as a kid and I’ll show you a serial killer. Too much soda pop and Mike and Ike’s? A bank robber. Not enough cruciferous vegetables? Most likely a white collar criminal. Show me a young girl who doesn’t get her full complement of leafy greens and I’ll show you a young girl who has a lot of speeding tickets. And cake eaters? Well, I haven’t been able to discover a direct crime link but I think we all agree that they are, by and large, angry and annoying people.

WHAT? Yes! Trust me on this. It’s all about brain chemistry. It’s about neurotransmitters, chemical substances that cause our brains and our bodies to feel good and function normally. It’s about serotonin and epinephrine and dopamine and adrenaline. They regulate our moods, our thoughts, our sleep, our impulses. When certain substances are in short supply or are overabundant, it is IMPOSSIBLE to be a decent human being. Frequently, those that we lock up are drug addicts and alcoholics. Why? They are self-medicating! They know that they don’t feel quite right, and they are trying to fix the problem. But it’s not the right solution.

So how DO we stay healthy and happy? PROPER NUTRITION AND EXERCISE! This leads me to my proposal. Instead of incarcerating individuals who perpetuate wrongs on the American public, let’s send them to nutritional camps. They can eat the proper foods, get moderate cardiovascular exercise, lots of quality sleep. . .maybe we’ll even throw in a couple days of weight training. As a special treat, probably on Sundays, we’ll bring in a cute Pilates instructor so they can work on their core strength and develop flexibility.

Of course, the retards at the FDA can’t be in charge of my revolutionary program. They, after all, are the douche bags that gave us the food pyramid. Nor can any nutritionist who graduated from the General Mills College of Bullshit (it’s everyone’s alma mater. . .ask ’em). No. I’m going to call my friends, Dr. Julian Whitaker and Dr. David Williams, the most awesome health gurus in the country. They can come up with a diet that includes freshly-milled whole grain products, raw organic produce, hormone-free lean proteins, and lots of distilled water. I’ll call Kathy Smith to put together an exercise program. THE FIRM can be in charge of the weight training. We’ll get these “criminals” put back together in no time flat! We’ll educate the heck out of them and when they’ve completed the program we’ll drop them off at the local Whole Foods market with a couple of crisp $20s. The 400 employees of the prison (a career choice, by the way, which is also closely related to a paucity of necessary neurotransmitters) can run the program, under close supervision.

If you really think about it, you know I’m right. You know that certain foods make you feel great, others not so much. You know that a lack of sleep can leave you unable to cope with the stresses of the day. A nice hike on a beautiful afternoon is a fantastic tension buster. Shouldn’t we give these people a chance to experience all that life has to offer? Is it really their fault that no one taught them how to stay sane and healthy? I think not. I think they are victims.

Most days I’m just one Hostess HoHo away from committing an unthinkable act. There, but by the grace of God, and the power of sensible nutrition and moderate exercise, go I.

Antipersonnel by design

Green Parrots memoir of a war surgeonIt is reported that Israel used one million cluster bombs in Lebanon. Half in the final hours of their pull-out.
 
One of the very sorry consequences of cluster bombs is that many unexploded bomblets are left to litter the streets and countryside. The bomblets are commonly bright yellow in color and attract the eye of small children. The bomblets explode when the children pick them up.
 
You’d think that maiming children could not be purposeful. Heaven forbid accusing Israel of such an intention. Surely child casualties are only a collateral product of war!
 
Until you consider a weapon nicknamed the Green Parrot. These antipersonnel mines are scattered by helicopter and are painted bright green. Unlike conventional mines which are concealed and detonate when stepped upon, Green Parrots are meant to be noticed and picked up by children.

Also called toy mines or flying mines, the small winged cylinders look like toy birds and explode when held.

Where’s Osama?

Osama bin WaldoShhhh…OMG…You’re not gonna BELIEVE this but I think I just found Osama. He or his identical twin, I KID YOU NOT, is sitting on the couch in my basement, eating Cheerios, watching our new plasma TV. My kids have been telling me for the past few weeks that there’s a “foreigner” down there but I thought they were talking about mice. We’ve had a rodent problem as of late and my kids, you know, have a pretty good sense of humor. But holy shit!
 
EVERYONE STAY CALM. I alerted the authorities over an hour ago. I’m sure they’ll be here very soon.
 
I’m actually pretty excited about this! The $25 million reward is going to come in QUITE HANDY. Especially because the basement smells like a cave now and will certainly need to be fumigated!
 
Well, okay, I’m starting to worry. I hope the law enforcement officials didn’t get into a fender bender or something on the way here. Oh, hello Osama. OSAMA? Where are you going? Osama! No, don’t leave yet! How ’bout a waffle or something?
Osaaaaammmmmaaaaa. SHIT.

I feel REALLY sorry for the men at the Department of Home Security, or whatever it’s called. This guy is like a modern-day frickin’ Houdini. Maybe they should call Dog Chapman. He’s probably pretty expensive, what with his own cable TV show and all, but I bet he could get the JOB DONE.

For Osama, we need to bring out the BIG GUNS, you know what I mean?

Not My Tribe

NMT. It bears discussing I think, and I hardly know what I’m talking about. Not My Tribe. It’s racist, it’s ethnocentric, it’s xenophobic, it’s human nature.

Avoiding males of another tribe coming your way is self preservation. Being attracted to a person whose physical traits match yours is self-propagation. Looking out for your brother is serving your blood line. Favoring others who look like you, who may be kin from somewhere back, is racism yes, it’s also tribal.

This TV season’s Survivor is catching flack for grouping its contestants into tribes by skin color. Is that appropriate? If the other aspects of Survivor reflected the human struggle, perhaps the tribal groupings would be intriguing. Instead I find the stunt rather distasteful.

For one, the “tribes” will be competing against each other. Is there any doubt that skin color has shown itself to be a statistical predictor of aptitude? Not human potential, mind you, physical aptitude. Are not the fastest runners dark-skinned? Are not most chessmasters light-skinned? In climates where people grow fair-skinned, do they not spend more time reading? Under the sun where people grow dark-skinned, is physical conditioning not more imperative? We should get over the platitude that all men are created equal. They are not. It’s doesn’t mean we can’t respect one another.

Second, what are called “racial” distinctions have little to do with tribe. Black Africans are no more from the same tribe than are whites. We all practice tribal eugenics when we size each other up. Eye color, skin texture, hair type, nose, shape, build. These are the traits which mark our tribes. That’s how we recognize our kin. We compete, but not in dead heats. We assert hierarchies over time, we do not breast-beat about far-reaching superiority. We co-exist.

I wonder if Not My Tribe has a place anymore in modern society. At last the planet has become too small to accomodate elements in the melting pot which resist dissolving. In the process however, I don’t see any benefit to lying about our differences. They’re there, they represent our personal culture, to celebrate and assimilate.

Freudian Ground Zero

Hiroshima Japan
Hiroshima Japan, Aug 6, 1945. Ground Zero.

This is Ground Zero. Five square miles. 70,000 killed. Japanese men, women and children.

Ground Zero is an Operation Research term. Distances to destination can be discussed in relative terms without divulging -or deciding- the actual destination.

Similarly, the D-day Normandy landing was Day 0. Days preparatory to D-day were called D -x. Events to occur subsequent the landing were scheduled for D +x. This way plans could be made relative to a fixed point, which might have to change with the weather.

Actually, ground zero has designated the impact point of every atomic bomb blast from Hiroshima to Bikini Atoll. Distance from Ground Zero was a key vector in measuring an explosion’s effect. Earthquakes require a similar designation. In the 80’s I remember recriminations flying about our nation’s pitiful response to the AIDs epidemic, the original human carrier was called Patient Zero.

Where pray-tell do we get off calling the World Trade Center Ground Zero? What geometry requires a 9/11 “ground zero?” Is the WTC the epicenter of the media lies unleashed on September 11th, 2001? Is it because every news story and every government rationalization points back to “9/11” Ground Zero?

Government surveillance

Last night I was, as I’m sure many of you were, privileged to watch an ABC docudrama about 9/11. We were invited by the ACLU to ponder how we should we respond to such an attack on our precious soil. Let’s look in a mirror..let us be reminded of who we are as a nation. Yes, let’s! Who are we as a nation? Are we all in agreement here? Were Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson on the same page ‘lo those many years ago? Most definitely not!

Jefferson, radical that he was, believed in personal autonomy. He advocated a decentralized government with the majority of power and authority residing with the states and, ultimately, with the individual. Jefferson was fearful of tyranny and was a proponent of personal freedom. Hamilton, on the other hand, favored a strong central government…one that acted in accordance with the interests of the “people” and needed the full faith and support of the American public to thrive. He said that a vast body of powers were to be implied and authorized Congress to “make all laws that shall be necessary and proper” to carry out powers specifically granted…like “national security.”
 
Can you guess who prevailed? It’s obvious that we live in a Hamiltonian society, rife with rhetoric and hyperbole, where the government “protects” us and is willing and able to trample individual freedoms on a daily basis. Why? Because they can! Because we let them! We’ve asked them to!   Jefferson and Hamilton duel

The frat boys in Washington are drawing upon Hamiltonian principles in the wake of the attacks of 9/11…they watch us, they engage in racial and political profiling…they imprison American citizens without due process…they make new laws every day that restrict our civil liberties. Why? Because they are fighting the “war on terror” and what they are doing is, of course, both necessary and proper.

Well, thank you very little. Don’t forget that every new law designed to “protect” us, every new rule enacted by our chums in D.C., comes with a price…our personal freedom. Are we safer now? I don’t feel it at all.

September 11th

You can’t find Osama bin Laden? Oh, really? You can’t? I’m sorry…I don’t mean to come across as skeptical, or pissy, or even downright hostile. But are you sure you’re really looking?

According to the ABC docudrama that aired last night, you’ve had Osama in your grasp several times recently. But suddenly he’s become elusive, uncatchable, a superhero the likes of which we’ve not seen before! He’s rich and tall and somewhat fetching really. Wow. How cool. Maybe, just maybe, it might be better for you to keep him “out there”…keep us off balance, frightened.

Why would you do that? Well, let’s think. This wouldn’t be a power grab, would it? You’re infamous for exploiting the American public’s fear…expanding the power of the government to save us from casually-defined “enemies.” Government entities leap from the tops of tall buildings to protect us. The IRS, one of the most tyrannical organizations on the face of the planet, the bottom quarter of the graduating class clad in red-white-and-blue spandex, has unilateral power to come after anyone, to freeze our assets, to torture us until we bleed…without mercy, without oversight. The Department of Social Services watches over us…”Doc, please, let us know about any broken bones, about any bruises, uncombed hair, cavities.”

Now you want to monitor our phone calls, our friendships, our opinions. WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? I know who you are. You’re the frat boy who walked me home from the college party to “protect” me…didn’t have anything to do with your agenda, did it? You’re the C-average Ivy League fuckers, legacies all! You’ve used 9/11 to gleefully expand the power of the state…to increase your own personal power. You, of course, know what’s right. For you. Bastards! People are slowly, very slowly, figuring you out.

I live a stone’s throw from NORAD, the North American Air Defense Command. On 9/11/2001, I had F-16s flying overhead all day long. You know what I feared most? Not Osama and his band of thugs, or wayward planes or nuclear bombs, but George W. hanging out in my back yard “protecting” me. Fuck you, frat rat, swaggering drugstore cowboy, and all of your slight-of-penis asshole friends. Unfortunately for you, I know your kind.