Departed Gray Matter

Yes Virginia, there is a War on Christmas

2011-12-18T13:35:00.001-07:00

At this glorious time of year when Americans give thanks for being loved by a white God, we all face the nagging fear of otherness. And when I say “all,” you know if that excludes you. I am speaking on behalf of Christmas loving people, some of whom may actually not be white.

Christmas is our sweet savior JESUS CHRIST’s way of reminding us that lights and ornaments and brightly wrapped gifts are reserved for Christians. It is of course unavoidable that “others” will also be reading this. In the spirit of fairness which Christmas instills in all Christians, I would like to extend my hand – and gently push you in the direction of another continent where your sort are tolerated.

We have all seen Sharia law used to settle cases where outside agitators have sought to legitimize Satanic phrases such as “Happy Holidays,” and “Season’s Greetings.” And it’s a well-known secret that Democrats and atheists are funding hidden labs in Iran where they are cloning Sharia lawyers even as we speak. Scud missiles are aimed at our great American malls, intent on the destruction of the holy tradition of capitalism. Rumor has it, and I know it to be a fact, that the missiles are painted with Arabic slogans which are direct translations of heathen phrases like “Happy Kwanza,” and “Celebrate Saturnalia.”

Yes, Virginia, there is a war on Christmas, and it’s high time we privatize Social Security and Medicare so we can free up those precious resources as we fight back. And your little Johnny and Sally are just being indoctrinated with hate-filled teachings on evolution and civil rights in their near-Communist state-run public schools, so we may as well defund them too. I say, let’s make America safe for Christmas again! Let’s pray in our children’s classrooms at the beginning of each lesson, or let’s close down those schools and sentence the principals and teachers to a joyless life of foreign films, vegan food, and because you asked for it, diversity.

Only when we have made it clear that America will not tolerate Christmas hating homos and ACLU commies, will we know the gentle love of Jesus. I say “Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year so you can celebrate another Merry Christmas!” I can tolerate “Happy Hanukah” just a bit since you Jews hate Muslims too, but for God’s sake, quit spelling it with a “C!”

Eulogy for Youth’s End

2010-09-22T19:35:00.001-06:00

I am jealous of my daughter’s generation and their wanton disregard for all the cautionary tales we throw at them. I am jealous of their sure conviction that a vast gulf separates them from my generation’s age, and aging, and aches &, pains, and lapsing physical capabilities and broken beauty. I often wistfully wish I could regain that age; that if I could but have my youth again, I would know better now how to spend the time in-between. Twenty-Four is all possibility, and an infinite future in which to make decisions and choices at leisure.

We hasten, my generation, to caution our children-turned-young-adults, about the swift passage of years just over the next horizon. We do this because we hope they will take heed and make good decisions now before they reap the fruit of decisions gone irrevocably bad. And we do this because we are jealous of the years they have before they find they may have painted themselves into a corner, and wish we could have those years too. They listen to us no more than we listened to our parents and their contemporaries in turn.

But then on occasion, those precious, nascent, jealously regarded years are dispensed with in no time whatsoever. Without regard for its thrumming imbued magic of potentiality and potency, this stretch of time is reduced without warning to a black hole, devouring itself to a pinpoint of nothing.

My daughter had a friend in high school. She and he enjoyed their shared companionship gazing at stars from our back lawn as we slept unaware of their liaisons. Her window let her out of her room and into the shared night of the cosmos, grass, coffee and teenage philosophy. We met him on occasion, learning of their nocturnal friendship only sometime later. But we “approved” of him. He was good and kind and he made her happy. It has been some years, I think, since they have shared much more than a distant friendship, but he was every bit a shaper of her adolescence, for good or for bad, as my wife and I were – at least for a time.

But that time, several years ago, is gone. And his time, now, is also gone. He was murdered by strangers, without motive – as far as the police know – this past Sunday.

I didn’t know him well. I don’t grieve for him per se. I grieve vicariously with my daughter. But I also find myself grieving in a way I don’t fully understand. I think it may be that though I knew him only a little and only a number of years ago, I did actually know him. And he represented that boundless possibility of future years. And while I can’t have those years for myself, and while I am jealous of those who do have them for themselves, I am ultimately a champion of their right to have those years for themselves. Their theft leaves me appalled. There is a diminished set of years to be lived by a bright light. As with all of us, that luminescence would have gradually faded, perhaps to become merely wan, but more likely to become varied in subtle hues of wisdom, regret, and joy. But it has been unfairly snuffed.

I don’t believe in heaven. I believe in the life we have. I will not squander the years I have yet in front of me. I will dispense with keening over my lost youth – now that I have a clearer appreciation of what lost youth really is.

Countdown to Fall

2010-08-01T08:20:00.000-06:00

A bumper sticker I would like to have

2009-10-02T10:54:00.003-06:00

Jimmy Carter's Comments of Race

2009-09-16T14:11:00.001-06:00

Mr. Carter is absolutely right in pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. In my experience, the ones who shout loudest that they are not racists, or that racism is a thing of the past in America, are generally the most racist of the lot. I don't know how many times I have heard the phrase, "I'm not racist, but...."

President Obama has been in a tricky position ever since his campaign went into high gear a year and a half ago. The man is no fool and certainly recognizes racism when he encounters it. Yet any mention of it by him or his staff would receive an instant backlash. In fact, I hadn't thought of it in such terms before, but I'd bet that's a fervid hope by those orchestrating such things on the Right. Kind of like when Hillary identified a "vast rightwing conspiracy," and was soundly ridiculed for stating an obvious truth. Only the Right would make 100 times the hay with any admission on Obama's part that his administration is being attacked based on race.

The ultimate affront is that race is being used to incite hatred toward this administration, not necessarily because those behind this renewed vast rightwing conspiracy are themselves racist (though no doubt some are), but because it's a convenient means of tapping into the fears of a large segment of the population. It was the reason the Right went after Hillary more than they did Bill: they knew it would be easy to inflame millions of conservative voters who distrust women in pantsuits.

Open Letter to President Obama

2009-09-03T11:53:00.001-06:00

Dear President Obama,

You ran on a promise of affordable healthcare for all. This has been the goal of Democrats and progressives for nearly three quarters of a decade. A bill without a public option would be a boon to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and would serve to actually make our healthcare system more expensive for all. Please be true to the principles you campaigned on. Your legacy should not be a healthcare boondoggle that hangs like an albatross around your neck. Worse yet, the albatross would be unfairly hung around the necks of all progressives and Democrats, and would make a Republican Neo-Con resurgence almost inevitable. Teddy Kennedy would already be turning in his grave if he knew you were entertaining going forward without a public option. Prove you are carrying the torch he handed you when he endorsed your campaign. Be the man of the people you promised to be. You work for us Mr. President. You are accountable to us. Be true. Stand firm. We who supported you so steadfastly during your campaign will stand firm with you – but you above all must stand firm now. NO healthcare bill without the public option!

I wrote the above message on a petition I just signed through BoldProgressives.org. I would like to add to it here. A healthcare bill written without a public option will be a healthcare bill written, for all intents and purposes, by and for the Pharmaceutical and Insurance industries. Too long under the Bush administration, were bills written and signed, serving corporate interests at the expense of the public interest. Your campaign promise of change had, at its heart, this resounding distinction. You must shepherd a Congress with the public interest at heart. Only then will we know that change is happening. This is a critical moment Mr. President. It would be better to have fought and to have lost than to capitulate and lose faith with the American people. Undoing the public option is not compromise; it is a betrayal of principle.

Time to Move On

2009-08-24T18:04:00.004-06:00

I started this blog because I like writing. It began as a series of essays on life, which I enjoyed. But it rapidly found a stridently political voice. It was a voice shared by many at the time, and I have no regrets for having written so.

But it's not what I started out to do, and it's really not what I enjoy writing about. I can't go back. This blog is what it is. But I can go forward, and I have done so, here:

Conversational Drift

Please join me there. I have a fresh page just waiting for the essays I love.

Thank you,

Yar

Alexis Cohen (Idol Wannabe) Hit and Killed - Cops were to blame

2009-07-27T16:04:00.004-06:00

A young gal named Alexis Cohen was hit and killed in the small hours of the morning. She was apparently a two-time contestant on American Idol. News stories abound with brief comments on her career and with descriptions of the despicable hit and run act by the bad guy Daniel Bark. Discussions are all about his record, his bail, what a "punk" he is.

I'm sure these are valid conversations. But one story mentions that the hit and run occurred as Bark was running from the Police, who were chasing him. This means that if the cops hadn't chased Bark, young Ms. Cohen would be alive.

Why does nobody ever assign blame to the cops? I don't mean to suggest that Bark is blameless. Doubtless the court will find him guilty of manslaughter or worse. But why aren't cops ever held to account for this kind of thing? Why do cops get the kid glove treatment from the public? When President Obama had the temerity to question the judgement of the police in the Gates case, you would have thought the world was coming to an end. How dare he question the police?

Let's quit molly-codling the cops and start holding them accountable. A quirky young woman who played the erstwhile entertainer for America is dead, and nobody is asking for that kind of accountability.

To the Victors go the Spoilage

2009-07-24T20:55:00.003-06:00

So we thought everything was going to be alright now that we elected a Democratic Congress, Senate and Administration. What’s more, we even managed to break at least one glass ceiling on the way (two, if you consider comedy, and Al Franken).

So I forgot about blogging. I went back to Kleenex inventorying, and Scotch sampling. All was now supposed to be good with the world. It was time to enjoy the pretty sunset colors.

Universal healthcare. Ahhh, so nice. Don’t ask, don’t even worry. Better. Guantana-no mo. Bush and Cheney in irons. Patriot – Last Act. What lovely vistas. Let’s raise a glass and toast to these visions of American rebirth.

Huh?

What’s up?

Did I miss something? I know I was in the john for a bit, but surely things can’t have taken the right turn they seem to have.

Can they?

Is this 1992 all over again? I can’t imagine we haven’t learned anything. We couldn’t possibly have let a vast right wing conspiracy survive as anything more than a whisper of a rotten ghost of a long-dead corpse of a miscreant forgotten by all but some dreary Neanderthals.

Could we?

Have we really allowed a coherent voice from speakers for the dead? Are we actually fighting the same old battles, only with the added juice of race? And with more hyped up venom than ever? With lies which site other lies as “proof,” which themselves are based on falsehoods, based on prevarications, based on malicious slander, and on and on. But of course, like Roger Daughtry, we can’t get fooled again.

Can we?

We have managed to facilitate a bulwark of mighty truth have we not? We have assembled a mountain of evidence. We have instructed our misled brethren (and sisthren) in the holy art of critical thinking.

Haven’t we?

The really bad guys who had free reign in this land, and who made our names synonymous with evil, are vanquished.

Aren’t they?

Why then do we continue to fight what we have won?

How is it that we made battle and unified a people as hadn’t been unified for half a century, and yet we still cannot act like winners?

Quit the apologies. Forget the goddamned bipartisanship. Screw the Republican party.

We won.

They lost.

Let’s be victors and claim the spoils.

Before they spoil.

Great Day

2009-01-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

What else is there to say? I was stuck at work today (I was supposed to have the day off, but work duties called). I saw the better part of President Obama's speech. Bonnie was at home, and she recorded it. I'll watch the whole thing with her this evening.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am no Pollyanna. But I can't help but feel a great deal of hope. As a general rule, I do not believe in disenfranchisement, but all those right wing whacko's out there who have done their level best over the past eight years to make our world hell, have been disenfranchised today! And it's a great thing.

I can't say where this will all end. But what a great beginning.

Obama and the Rick Rabbit Warren

2008-12-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

This is the best I've seen written on this subject to date: Taking Yes for an Answer

Remember the Guillotine

2008-12-11T18:11:00.008-07:00

I have been absent a bit too long from these pages. I really ought to spend more time here. Perhaps I'll put pen to paper over my Christmas break. In the meantime...

I don't know about you, but I am starting to get a little worried. I may not have this desk and computer and chair and roof over my head all that much longer. Now, I have no imminent concerns over the health of hearth and home, but I'm in the same boat we're all sailing in, and I'm not in the posh cabins. Neither am I sitting in steerage just yet, but a further list to port could easily wash me there.

So here is what I have to say: To you people out there who caused all this; to you overly powerful, greedy, sadistic, obscenely wealthy, traitorous, motherfuckers who robbed our treasury blind and even now have your butt boy Bush eviscerating the endangered species act, among other things - just because you can and just because you enjoy fucking every living thing on this planet, and to you who are quietly secreting away the billions you frightened us into handing over to your henchmen carte blanch; your days of hiding behind your dollars (and yen and kroners, and euros) are coming to an end. Watch out; as we all become poor, nobody is going to fight for you anymore. You will be on your own. Your private armies will disband. Your ready access to all your wealth will soon become as problematic as it was for the Howells sitting on Gilligan's Island. But you won't be able to bully anybody into refreshing your gin and tonic. The advantage of having one tenth of one percent of the world's population owning 99 percent of the world's wealth is that, baby we have the numbers in spades. And all your guns are going to be pretty worthless when you have nobody left willing to pull the triggers on your behalf. You folks better start ordering your coffins. You're going to need them soon.

Remember the guillotine.

I hope it was worth it.

Interlude

2008-11-16T21:20:00.004-07:00

I have a long post I have started to write, but I'm not there yet. Life has intervened.

However, I want to write briefly about these post-election times. The euphoria of almost two weeks ago (it seems much longer) has settled down to "who is being considered for this position," and "why has Obama's camp become so much less close to the chest in their vetting process," and "will Obama support a Big Three bailout," and even "what puppy will the Obamas have?"

Amidst all of that hoo-haw, on third pages of newspapers and mentioned on radio only by Randi Rhodes, is a sinister, disjointed for now, movement of hate and violence. I am very concerned about this. We need to vigilant. We need not yet rest on our laurels. Not only do we need to stand strong as a movement for the purpose of making the changes we have all ascribed to as progressives and liberals and just-plain Americans; we need to build this movement so we can stand in strength against the rising fear and hatred fanned by Limbaugh and Savage and the KKK. They will surely rein havoc and murder. We must be larger than them.

I am very hopeful. I am also very concerned about the threat within. These are times of great potential and also of great peril. Let's rise to the call of our times and stand firm together.

Yes We Did

2008-11-05T06:51:00.002-07:00

YES WE DID!

This Tuesday...

2008-11-03T21:01:00.001-07:00

New Rule

2008-10-29T21:07:00.003-06:00

A note to those who would post here:

I will gladly post any comment that does not spew hysterican rhetoric here, regardless of my agreement or disagreement with the poster. I will however, beginning now, not accept any comment that I find to be pure hatred-filled, or willfully-ignorance-filled, bluster, and I will summarily delete all such comments.

Tough luck.

If you want to be read, post original thoughts (not rehashes of your Neo-Natzi mentors), and post honest opinions, not racially or socially charged disinformative tirades.
If you follow these simple suggestions, we may have a conversation.

Lacking that, Fuck You.

America’s Next Civil War

2008-10-26T17:46:00.002-06:00

America is poised on the edge of a new era. We are (knock on wood) just about to elect our first Black President. This comes on the heels of what some are describing as the bleakest eight years in American history, culminating in what could become a worse economic collapse than that of the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Americans’ willingness to embrace a man of African descent for President rides hard on their rising certainty that the old guard got it desperately wrong.

As the old era collapses before our eyes, desperate old men are flailing about in an attempt to retain power, if not necessarily to reconsolidate it. Even if the presidency be lost for the old guard, a super minority in the Senate might still be avoided. And so the old boys (and their new girl) are spilling and spattering out words and sentiments intended to divide and to spread fear. Their only chance of retaining a sliver of power in Washington, as they view it, is to manipulate the fear and visceral hatred of the “other” into votes against the better interests of their constituents.

There is nothing new about this in America, and especially in American politics. Senator Joseph McCarthy used these tactics like a maestro in the 1950’s. Segregationists incited murder in the 50’s and 60’s, and the 90’s found our country fearing gays and illegal aliens as if the core of our existence were under attack.

What is troubling now is the way in which those, who truly believe that there is a pro-American crowd and an anti-American crowd in our midst, are being marginalized into a tight-knit stronghold of “us and them” mentality.

The past eight years have been the culmination of thirty years which started with Ronald Reagan, during which time we have had the American economy shift so far to the top-down model that the inevitable collapse has finally arrived. Most Americans are becoming aware of the flaw in this ointment, and are ready to return to the bottoms-up approach favored by Franklin Roosevelt. And while we would love to keep our heads embedded firmly in the sand, we understand in our guts just how much hard work we have ahead of us. Our dawning new day is not a panacea; it is simply a necessary step we must take if we are even to have a chance at rebuilding this troubled land.

As we cast our ballots in favor of a better future, few if any of us do so in spite. We don’t see the “real Americans” who see us as “anti-American,” as enemies. Neither do we look down our noses at them. I believe that if the “God and guns” crowd understood how they have been mercilessly used and manipulated toward the ends of folks who couldn’t give a fat nickel for their fates, these people would rise up in an anger yet unseen in our nation’s history. Unfortunately, even that statement is likely to be seen as elitist.

There is a very large group of Americans, perhaps twenty-five to thirty percent of us, who have been thoroughly manipulated and maneuvered into positions of fear and hatred for decades now. Social engineers, most often in the guise of radio talk show hosts, have employed the same brainwashing techniques used by cult leaders and Jihadists.
Quotes like these are very telling:

"Liberals hate real Americans that work, and accomplish and achieve." – Rep. Robin Hayes, R-North Carolina

"(“Real America” is) something Barack Obama can't possibly know, because he's not one of us. It's like the way (Richard) Nixon was able to talk to the hard hats." – Jim Wilson, a Colorado District Attorney

"I had to work for everything I got. That's what I was taught, and Sarah Palin understands that. People like Obama, they get driven in vans all over Washington. Palin's a working mom." - Reese Resnick, a Durango CO oil and gas industry salesman

These are disturbing sentiments. The most troubling aspect of these statements is that the fact-checkable portions of them are simply false. The first statement cannot be fact-checked, but I am liberal and I can assure that I have no hate for Americans that work, accomplish and achieve – in fact, I am one of those folks myself. The next statement, that Barack Obama is not one of us is simply ridiculous, unless you redefine “us.” But if you redefine “us,” you have undefined America, and have written her a new history. The final statement implies that Barack Obama was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Who is telling people such obvious lies?

I listened in dumbstruck fascination as a self-admitted listener to radio talk show host Michael Savage called a progressive host to tell her that Barack Obama was not in Hawaii to visit his dying grandmother; he was there to obtain a fake birth certificate since he had no real one. Source of this lie: I would guess it must be Michael Savage himself. He used to inhabit the dark corridors of a local talk radio station, and his dishonest vitriol is nearly unparalleled. But the point is this: once people have been indoctrinated sufficiently into the “us and them” world view, you can tell them almost anything that bolsters that view, and they will accept it without a thought.

Something on the order of seventy-five million Americans, who are otherwise mostly perfectly good people, have been so conditioned. That’s a blanket figure and a blanket statement, but I think the poll numbers back this up. We can push forward our progressive agendas and plans, and we should and must, but we are leaving behind the hearts and minds of this increasingly marginalized group. And there will be a piper to be paid. The conditioning of these Americans is such that for every move we make as a nation toward revitalization in a bottoms-up economy, and toward a more tolerant society, there will be a counter hardening of resolve in the camp of “real Americans.”

Nothing that grows malignantly is sustainable. Even seemingly benign malignancies (like stock-market bubbles) must eventually come crashing down. The polarization of American culture is not sustainable either. I firmly believe that a progressive, tolerant, bottoms-up America is an America on the right track. I am also fairly certain that the far-right crowd which fancies itself as the “real America” is not going to change their minds any time soon. So while we are rolling up our sleeves to rebuild our failing infrastructure, and reinvigorating our public school systems, and building a green economy, we all had better be watching over our shoulders. There’s a civil war brewing. And they have all the guns.

Our Higher Cause

2008-10-14T22:08:00.002-06:00

As I digest one more day of political news and punditry, I think we all need some clarity. This isn’t merely a case of “us versus them,” or product “X” against product “Y.”

We have a higher cause than to promote yet further the divisive advancement of partisanship. Rhetoric pronounced from behind the safety of a party-base ensconced podium, inciting violence and bigotry, belongs to America’s past shame. Inspired calls for community visions and victories and for sleeves rolled as colors blend; as the rich hues of working sweat stain our brick and mortar edifices; as we pursue the purpose of our common humanity; these things belong to now and to America’s future.

That is clarification.

How has a once-great people found itself to be so full of hate? Why are so many of us lifted with the inspiration of belittlement? When did we learn to accept meanness as a substitute for substance? Who told us that fear should shape our vision?

These sentiments do not embody greatness. The purveyors of such filthy pursuits must not be considered for high public office. Under extremely troubling circumstances, we have found ourselves faced with the best opportunity any of us has had in our lives, to effectually make a deep mark on our futures, and on all of our children’s lives. Any of us who would accept hatred and fear as a substitute, or even as a dodge, cannot possibly say that we have inherited the spirits of our fathers. We will as good as have spit on their memories.

Instead, we must consider who we are as a people. We are great, not by our name or by our past, but only by our continued vigilance in the advancement of human freedom and dignity. Guns did not win this freedom for our ancestors. Hearts and minds won freedom with new ideas and with determined spirits. Guns only won our independence. Many an independent nation has subsequently lost its cause.

Our nation is in dire danger of losing our cause. It’s time to re-learn our real heritage. It’s time to unlearn the mockery of that past that proclaims our greatness to be at the expense of the shoddiness of all others.

Only causes challenging us to our nobler selves can make us to know we are doing right. Listen hard, please. There will be a test. And this is it.

Obama Ten Points Ahead

2008-10-08T20:56:00.004-06:00

Did you ever think you'd see the day when people were so afraid about their futures that they would forget their fear of a black man?

Okay, so they broke it...

2008-09-18T19:50:00.003-06:00

You know, I've been thinking.

Okay, I didn't start out thinking. I started out with my head in the sand. I started out accusing other people of having their heads in the sand. I started out angry. I started out pointing fingers. I started out scared. I started out despairing.

I said that I hadn't expected to spend the last twenty years of my life in a global economic depression. I schemed to see if I could keep everything we had worked so hard for. I considered plans to protect things I just absolutely could not lose. I tried to imagine myself living on the street after being evicted by a bank - a bank also hanging on for an inch of dignity, and inevitably losing. Ultimately losing.

I blamed it on economic greed. I blamed it on financial laziness. I blamed it on Republicans. I blamed it on Democrats for not having nads.

I blamed it on myself for not being prepared; for not being prescient enough to know I should have amassed two tons of gold these past twenty-five years.

And then I spent some time thinking. And I'm still thinking. I'm still reacting, but I'm working really hard at locating that thoughtful space.

And I have decided something that I think is really important.

When Bonnie and Brandy and I were in Italy five years ago, we were robbed of almost everything we had with us on our last day there. This reality hit us very suddenly. We heard our car alarm sound as we walked the path beside an ocean-side castle to the parking lot where we had carelessly abandoned most of our traveling belongings just an hour earlier. Moments later we saw the shattered glass that threatened profoundly to equate to a shattered vacation and shattered lives if we gave it that space to grow. Brandy immediately crashed into tears. My heart broke into twelve thousand pieces as I realized that I had failed to protect her, and I nearly lost my will to do anything but recriminate my own ill begotten decisions.

To my amazement to this day, I found something very deep inside myself, and called my daughter and wife to action. I announced (while shouting down the daemon that wanted me to despair and take all and any blame) that we needed to pull together NOW. I told Brandy that I knew how awful this was, but that I needed her strength now. We all needed each others' strength.

The long and the short of this is that we did manage to get our shit together. Within a matter of hours we had passports, other identification, new credit cards, cash, plane tickets, and our dignity wrapped around us again. We had managed, in a few short hours, to bring ourselves from a potentially ruined vacation, without a penny to our erstwhile unsubstantiated names, back to being people, and to being a family, and and to being revelers in life, again. We weren't without our scars, but we weren't victims either. We had our lives back.

This time things are going to be a bit harder. The assaults on our financial securities and on our dignity are much greater. And this time there are many many more lives than just those of three lonely travelers at stake. But this is where I got to thinking today: the principals are really the same.

Just as the three of us pulled together, deciding in the midst of our fear and despair that we couldn't afford to wallow in those emotions (no matter how justified), we as a society need to find the same strength together. This isn't going to be easy. Some are going to fall apart. Some people aren't going to be able to find any inner strength. I've never blamed Brandy for her reaction to our situation by bursting into tears. I've tried not to blame myself too much for letting it all happen or for finally having a meltdown in the Atlanta Airport on the way home the next day. We pulled together then; both immediately, and subsequently; and I know human nature has that capability. We have it in spades.

And so I am committing myself to making it though this very uncertain economic future with dignity and pride. And more importantly, I am committing myself to helping others through it as well.

Bonnie, Brandy and I all learned something about our resilience on that Thursday afternoon in Italy. And we each integrated those experiences into the overall fabric of our lives, and are better people for it. Our country is going to be better for this. We will be.

Bumper Sticker!

2008-09-09T12:52:00.001-06:00

Recipe for Disaster

2008-09-02T18:14:00.003-06:00

No, this isn't a commentary. This is a recipe I concocted recently and I felt I should share it for the benefit of all. I hope you like it:

Recipe for Disaster

To a broth of Crusty Old Man, add,

1 Short Temper
3 Bomb’s
plus 1 Iran, well stirred
1 Over-confident Karl Rove
1 Lovelorn Independent “Democratic” Senator / VP hopeful
1 Well-seasoned Romney stuffed firmly into the cavity created by Rove.

Simmer on low heat for several months, then turn to high, and add,

1 Denial of Crusty Old Man male fulfillment
1 Impetuous act of defiance
1 Viagra enhanced libido.

Crank that burner all the way to the Right, and vigorously stir in,

1 to 2 Pregnant Moms
1 Unrequited Beauty Queen
1 Bridge to Nowhere
1.1M Dollars slashed from Pregnant Teen’s fund
A few Caribou shot from an airplane
1 Suspicious Birth (add more to taste)
1 State next to Russia (almost as good as being there)
13,634 Alaskan Independence Party members
1 Estranged Brother in Law
Several As yet unrevealed Scandals

From the oven, remove the previously concocted Incited Hateful Prayer for Rain (see last month’s edition for the recipe), and accidentally spill it, causing hurricanes to rain on your own parade. Maintain a good face and serve promptly. Caution: This recipe sours very quickly; do not attempt to reheat.

Serves: No One

Please distribute freely.

It's a joke, right?

2008-08-30T07:24:00.005-06:00

I must have misplaced my calendar. I could have sworn yesterday was August 29th, not April first.

I have to admit the word palin' has come to mind many times when looking at John McCain, but it has always been in reference to his skin tone. Who would have guessed he could actually find someone with that adjective for a name? Palin isn't so much a running mate as it is a dermatological condition.

But the joke gets better. Remember when the Pugs were asleep at the wheel and Dubya nominated his personal attorney, Harriet Meyers, to the Supreme Court? That took days (or maybe it was weeks - I don't remember any more) to settle. Bush got his dick slapped (although it was Dick who did the slapping), and Harriet managed to crawl away with a modicum of her dignity in tact.

Do you think that might just possibly be happening again? McCain was at the Miss Buffalo Chip competition a couple of weeks back. With adolescent excitement making his voice quiver, he offered up Cindy (not in a million years can I imagine somebody named Cindy as First Lady) for contention in the topless bikers' pageant. The man clearly likes a pretty face (even it you need to remove an inch of spackle just to find it).

So in sharper definition of his sallow character, McCain, in a effort to avoid Mittens as his in-house handler, finds an ex- beauty queen cum podunksville governor for a running, er, um, mate. Well at least we already know she's for world peace. I bet McCain is giddy imagining Cindy and Sarah in high heels and bathing suits on either side of him at his inauguration. Sarah could wax philosophical about how Americans don't have maps and such as.

So did Rove blink? Is Neocon Death Star Control in panic mode, with all those mindless minions scurrying about, hair on fire as their wiring short-circuits? I can see it now. Mittens actually has several hairs out of place and his mask is half torn off, revealing Cheney's sneer beneath. Shouts of "damage control" echoing about the underground chambers; the wails of torture victims in the dungeons below drowned out by the louder wails of a machine for which the wheels have just fallen off.

We back off from this picture to a distance several miles above, and watch and listen as a loud whump is followed by the colossal collapse of megatons of earth. Clouds of dust rise into the atmosphere. And slowly settle. Into silence.

Sarah and Cindy. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Happy Birthday Grampy McCain

2008-08-29T06:48:00.004-06:00

Today is John McCain's 72nd birthday. Do you remember where he was three years ago today, on his 69th birthday? He was at an airforce base in Arizona, eating cake with Dubya. I have to imaging that was one expensive cake as tax paid for cakes go.

But do you remember what else was happening three years ago today, as Bush and McBush were eating cake?

Hurricane Katrina was drowning the city of New Orleans. That's what was happening. Rome was burning and Nero and McNero were fiddling.

Now guess what? Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on the gulf coast once again. It's scheduled for landfall, very possibly in New Orleans, on Monday, the day McSame's convention is slated to begin in Minneapolis-St Paul (Larry Craig's home away from home).

Well, Larry, you may need to wait a bit longer to get your fill of, well you know. It seems the Repugnant-Cons may delay their Con-vention. It would be awfully embarassing if a whole convention center full of these pig-faced slimeballs were eating cake as another hurricane makes landfall in Louisiana.

If they delay their orgy of oligarcy, do you suppose they will all be in New Orleans filling sandbags instead? I think more likely they'll be busy securing options to buy ocean front property on the Gulf Coast.

PUMA's My Ass!

2008-08-25T10:36:00.002-06:00

Something is becoming clearer to me. The results of a poll I heard about today list 45% of Hillary supporters as currently being avid Obama supporters. An additional 25% say they will vote for Obama regardless of mixed feelings. And a whopping 30% say they will vote for McCain.

Wow!

How do you explain that? Are people so willing to cut off their noses to spite their faces? Or are they that racist that they will vote against their own interests rather than bring themselves to vote for a black man? I used to think it had to be one of these two answers.

I don’t believe it any more. The answer is simple. This 30% of Hillary supporters never did support Hillary. They registered as Democrats. I’ll agree with that. And they did so for the following reasons: 1) They wanted to lend legitimacy to their supposed support for Hillary, and 2) They really wanted to do their best to defeat Obama in the primaries.

This explains a lot:

Obama started out in Iowa beating Hillary handily. He followed that with a Super Tuesday sweep. And then things started turning. All sorts of reasons for this shift were touted at the time. Folks started asking why Obama couldn’t close the deal.

Now supposed Democrats say they will vote for a candidate who has made very clear the platform that he will espouse. McCain favors everything Bush has stood for. McCain has added not a single progressive move to Bush’s platform of the past seven and a half years. What Democrat would possibly vote for that platform?

No Democrat would vote for that platform. That’s the answer. These 30% factions of “Hillary supporters” are not Democrats. They are Republicans. They were always Republicans. All you need to do is to listen to some of their rhetoric (I’ve heard many of them). They don’t sound even the tiniest bit like Democrats. They utter their allegiance to all things Hillary, but those utterances ring hollow. Everything else they say clearly screams Republican.

So to all those who have felt Barack should have done better against Hillary than he did, take heart; he did! And to anyone who is listening to this 30% faction and wondering if their own support of Obama might be the result of flawed thinking, relax. And to anyone who is upset that we might be missing 30% of 18 million Hillary votes (that’s 5.4 million votes), forget it. Those were never Hillary votes. They were never Democrat votes. They were always McCain votes.

McPander

2008-08-20T17:10:00.006-06:00

I'm only going to say this once: Wake up Republicans! And especially, wake up religious right!

When are you going to see that McCain and the party you hold dear are using you as patsies? Look, McCampaign is testing the waters on fielding a pro-choice Veep. Just what the hell does that tell you? When McCain tells you he has faith in JC, etc, blah, blah, ad nauseum, yada, yada, he's also been telling you that he's not like the "baby killing" Barack Obama, and that he believes in the sanctity of all life (read: all American [preferably white] life). In short, he's confirming his pro-life stance.

Clean the wax out of your friggin' ears! McCain is pandering to you! He doesn't give a damn about fetuses, born or unborn. He just wants your votes. Otherwise, why the hell would he even consider a pro-choice running mate? Hmmmm????? Think about it now!

Now Mr. Obama admits to being pro-choice. You may not like that. You may not agree with it. But he's telling you the truth! And he is no baby killer. Not all the crap Hannity and Rush and O'Reilly tell you is true (come to think of it, I'd be shocked if any if it were true). Isn't honesty worth a whole lot more than someone who is using your beliefs and sentimentalities and convictions for the cynical purpose of garnering votes? And unlike McCain, Barack had the guts to tell the truth in front of a pro-life crowd. I kind of like the idea of a President with guts. Don't you?

I know a lot of people are telling you a different story, but we folks on "the left" are really concerned about the rights of regular folks. That's folks like us, and that's folks like you. No kidding. Really, we want your rights to think and act the way you want to, to be as valued and cherished and protected as all of ours. Look really hard at McCain. Look really hard at what the Republican party has been doing now for years. They don't care about you.

In fact, if I were you, I'd be really pissed off at being used. I'd be so pissed that I would never vote for any of them again.

Folks, if you can't bring yourself to vote for Obama, then at least don't vote for McCain. Stay home on election day. Or better yet, vote for Bob Barr. I don't agree with Bob Barr on everything, but I think he's honest. I don't think he's just using you. Don't be used. You're worth a whole lot more than that.

Please wake up.

Are you out there? Do you live near me?

2008-08-07T20:35:00.009-06:00

I feel pretty lame writing this, but I am losing my mind. I need help. I don't know where to turn.

This litany of insanity ought to drive any sane person mad:

Drivers are sent to prison. Crime families and their cronies in the highest offices in the land are not. Sore-loser candidates threaten to be spoilers for us all. A nation founded on freedom cannot find it in its soul to see a black candidate as anything other than black. Anthrax almost certainly directed toward its deadly conclusion by the crime family noted above, is ascribed to a man so harassed by law officials that he kills himself; and the case is closed. We are destroying our planet and my well-educated boss sits across from me at lunch and tells me that global warming is a hoax perpetrated on us by those wanting to make money off a brainwashed public. The candidate I most respect as our next potential president seems to have lost - at least temporarily - his passion for dispensing with business as usual, and his passion for change. The state of Texas steps up its passion for executing people of color and Latin accent. Proof upon proof upon proof of criminality in our White House is swept under the rug of jurisprudential and journalistic indifference. Americans worry about the awkward re-induction of Brett Favre into professional football and beg for offshore drilling, content that oil spills will not destroy their back yards.

Then there is my profound sense of futility as I smash my head against the walls of these imponderables, only to see them multiply as if mocking me and the handful of sane persons on this planet-in-peril. I spend and send my money to campaigns that mirror, in some fleeting fashion, my preponderance for not wishing to be a witness to humankind's final, and far from finest, hour as we slip into the cesspool of extinction. Will the cockroaches' decedents ponder our civilization as they pick through our fossils a million years from now? Or will only shreds of plastic endure, and will Earth's future owners wonder what flesh could have fossilized in such an odd manner?

I observe slack-jawed co-denizens of our world shuffle like zombies in The Night of the Living Dead to stand before a Best Buy storefront in anticipation of its doors unfolding to reveal electronically bedazzling wonders to their fried cortices. I notice last night as I wander a parking lot that I am embarrassed to admit I was in, that my car is the only one of several hundred that sports a political sticker of any sort at all. Radio stations and sports teams are resplendently represented.

And this is maybe the crux of the deal: I have no idea how to contact those with whom I can share my fears, angst, and very meager hope. I know these people exist. I hear them call in to progressive radio shows. I read their blogs and I see their comments left behind like breadcrumbs amidst the noxious thorns that surround them.

But I cannot find anyone at the end of the breadcrumbs. Oh, don't misunderstand me; I do find e-people. But I need to find people of flesh and blood. I have a hole in my gut that is as big as Jupiter that needs to be filled by conversation across a coffee table, not across a cyber-port. I want to shake the hand of the man and or woman who understands and shares this sense of dread. I want to feel my hand hurt as it is bruised by knuckles and fingers that have forgotten the physical act, and are an expression of a sense of friends-well-met. Or a sense of shared hurt and worry. Or a sense of revolution.

Are you out there? Do you live near me?

Pool it!

2008-08-06T21:53:00.004-06:00

In the past two or three weeks I have received "emergency" requests for donations from perhaps half a dozen candidates. The candidates range from Congressman, to Senator, to President. I have given to each of them in the past (or at least I have blogged or in other ways opined on their behalf), and I am not a constituent (or potential constituent) of half of them.

The candidates include Tom Udall, Martin Heinrich, Dennis Kucinich, Robert Wexler, and Barack Obama. I don't remember for sure who all I've actually contributed money to in the past, but clearly they all consider me a donor for their current and future needs.

And if I had sufficient resources I would give more often and more freely (I discovered just a few days ago that I had inadvertently signed up for a monthly give-a-thon to the ACLU when I thought I was just donating once - I believe very strongly in the ACLU, so I didn't cancel this "generosity," but it cramps my style all that much more).

So I decided (at first) when I received this deluge of requests, that I would only give to actual candidates who would (if elected) represent me. That list includes Tom Udall, Martin Heinrich and of course, Barack Obama (sorry Dennis and Robert). But now I realize that I can only afford so much and even a continued commitment to these three is difficult. They're like a hungry baby! I understand the constant need to feed the campaign, but I just can't do it all.

We're house-hosting a gal working Obama's campaign in Albuquerque, and as of tonight, we've signed up to host yet another (a guy this time, I believe). That is a continued commitment, and I have no qualms claiming "campaign equity" for that generosity. But I do realize the realities here.

The realities are:

1) the smear ads being launched against all five of the candidates I listed above are in fact essentially the same. The claims made are untrue, or at best, a mockery of the truth. If you read/listen to the ads you get the idea really quickly that you can pretty much exchange the names of the candidate and state for different Democratic candidates, and end up with advertisements that are equally "effective," and

2) Democratic responses to these smear tactics spend probably too much time on the defensive. They obsess, as do the smear campaigns themselves, with the personal aspects of the candidates. And they treat these Rovian tactics as if each is an isolated incident.

So here is my idea: Pool your money. Let's make our Democratic responses count. A) Quit spending so much just trying to make essentially the same point over and over, only for different candidates and in different venues; B) find a common message about the health and common good of our candidates and spread it across the board; and C) find a common message about the depravity and common destruction embodied in the Republican party.

Hammer these messages home. Leave no stone unturned, but shout the same cohesive (and brutally honest) message as each stone is upended. Let's get a mantra going. You know, one of the brilliant strategies of Karl Rove is that mantra politics works, and that it's cheap! I wouldn't want to lie like these bastards do, but I want to shout the truth in ways that scare the bejeezus out of their party faithful.

Let's save our money and hit a home run! What do you say Tom and Martin? What do you think Barack? And how about you Dennis and Robert? We can make this an inclusive club if we all pool our resources.

All of you espouse changing our system. Let's start here.

Anthrax

2008-08-01T20:54:00.005-06:00

When I heard this morning that somebody, after seven years of law enforcement going absolutely nowhere, had finally emerged as a credible suspect for the 2001 DC anthrax attacks (that left half a dozen dead), I knew I was about to smell the stench of bullshit.

Sure enough, that familiar smell wafted into my awareness shortly thereafter.

Vince Foster is the poster child for the anti-suicide defamation league of conservative conspiracy theorists. Frankly, I find Foster's suicide a bit suspicious myself. In fact, whenever I become aware of an all-too-convenient death, officially slated as a suicide, I cannot help but sit up and take notice. Like the death of Deborah Jeane Palfrey (rest easy, David Vitter).

This most recent convenience was just such a death. As of this evening, the spin on Bruce Ivins is becoming more and more fleshed out. What began early today as a ironic story of dogged investigation, betrayal and suicide, is now becoming this administration's latest snow job. Randi Rhodes suggested today that Bush had a loose end or two to clean up. One of her callers expanded on that suggestion with the observation that Ivins may have been seen as a liability.

The 2001 anthrax murders and terrorist tactics were most certainly the acts of folks incited (and paid) by Karl Rove at Dick Cheney's behest. They are the real terrorists. They are the murderers. And today, we have seen one final sweeping under the rug of a murder case about as close to the Executive as makes no never mind. And we have been provided with a false list of accusations. And better yet, we have been provided with a corpse. And a corpse cannot testify as to their innocence. Or to the complicity of others.

And speaking of complicity, Nancy Pelosi remains adamant that the protection of the Constitution is off the table. We will not see prosecution of the greatest crimes ever perpetrated against this republic. We will have to suck it all up and accept that "winning" this fall trumps all else. Oh yeah, we're talking about a party winning. That matters. The public doesn't get to win. We get to watch as the winners ascend the dias' and claim their glory. And we are supposed to count that as winning.

Response to a PUMA

2008-07-25T21:21:00.005-06:00

I read this blog tonight with interest. And I laughed several times. But the endgame of the blog's author is questionable. For your reading pleasure (or nausea), this was my response to that author:

Mike,

I liked the wit and constrained vitriol in your blog. But while I am no more the zombie-minded minion of Obama than you are, I am befuddled by your comments:
“But, just because I'm not voting for Obama, doesn't mean I've lost my
marbles.”

So, just whom are you voting for? Ralph Nader? Bob Barr? Cynthia McKinney?

I sympathize with the need to have a strong third (and fourth and fifth and sixth) party. But in the meantime, a McCain presidency could well spell the end of our society. Do you mean to indicate that you would actually welcome that?

I wrote with barely controlled fury when Obama voted “yea” on the FISA bill. In a moment of pique I even threatened to campaign against him.

Talk about cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.

FDR did not run on a progressive platform. He was born and bred to privilege. But the times, and more importantly, the will of the people, transformed his presidency into the most progressive of the last century. And please don’t parade out Japanese internment camps, and other war-time limitations of liberty. The net result put millions of our parents, aunts and uncles through school. It resulted in an infrastructure that, until Reagan started abandoning it, was the industrial envy of the world. In short, FDR’s programs, incited by the masses and perfected by a great intellect, ended the first great depression and initiated the greatest middle class this world has ever seen (until, yes you guessed it, Reagan decided to end that too).

You may idealize one of the third (or fourth or fifth) party candidates. I myself idealized Dennis Kucinich. And I still do. But I realize that even if we really truly had free and honest elections, my hero, Dennis, would likely not be a strong president. He doesn’t lack intellect, nor tenacity. He lacks the ability to pull people together toward the achievement of a common goal. Oration has been dismissed at Hillary Clinton’s peril. And the McCain campaign is attempting to dismiss it now as well. But when the people of a nation, or of a planet, have the need to come together under a common cause (perhaps for our survival), oration comes in mighty damn handy. And it can’t hurt one bit to have a predilection for even moderate progressiveness.

So what practically executable vision do you have?

Sincerely,

Yar

Vision

2008-07-24T21:31:00.004-06:00

I know that in itself, rhetoric is insufficient as a means of enacting social progression. I know Barack Obama shocked and dismayed many of us as he first announced his intention to say "aye" to the unconstitutional FISA bill, and then followed it up with an "aye" on the record in session. And all this when his vote didn't even count, as that awful bill passed far too easily.

I know many of us have chafed at Barack's promise of expanded "faith-based initiative" programs. The word on the liberal street is that Obama is drifting all to swiftly towards the center. And we who put our hearts out in front of our sanity to vaunt his advance over Hillary's juggernaut campaign, have had our sanity severely challenged as a result.

But damn, that man can give a speech. His soliloquy in Berlin today was one more amazing call to action and awareness for those of us who find no value in life except that we confront head-on the human tradegy.

In his speech today, Mr. Obama decided to include the entire world. He did so in a manner that would have elevated John Kennedy. And he managed to bring me to tears. He went beyond his own ambitions; he dispensed with the ambitions of the Democratic Party; he left the ambitions of the United States, and those of Europe, far behind. And he challenged the world. He challenged the world in a way that did not unfairly burden those least able to provide answers, and in a way that fully burdened those who could, and who must, be so burdened. But he included us all as brothers and sisters, and offered a vision, and an obligation, for us all. He acknowledged that we face an hour that is as fraught with peril as it is implicitly positioned for hope. And yet his vision holds out for that hope.

I am no fool. But I will vote for this man and I will pour my strength into securing the success he has dared us all to envision.

Flickr Pics

2008-07-21T21:26:00.004-06:00

At a friend's recommendation I started this Flickr account. I've loaded 120 photos to date. Some are good I think. The remainder are filler.

Visiting Swallowtail

2008-07-19T08:21:00.003-06:00

This beautiful specimin visited our backyard two evenings ago.

Tell-a-Gramm

2008-07-11T09:07:00.000-06:00

Here is a very good opinion piece from the Philadelphia Daily News. Written by a conservative with a brain.

Blogs | Tom Udall for Senate

2008-07-10T20:31:00.000-06:00

Blogs Tom Udall for Senate

FISA Bill

2008-07-10T12:20:00.000-06:00

Yesterday's Senate vote on the FISA bill, which passed 69 to 28, was a very dissapointing blow. The vote didn't come as a surprise; the direction the wind has been blowing on this bill has been evident for some time. But that very wind direction is what is surprising. One would think that current public sentiment would be sufficient for this awful direction to change.

However, I am writing this not to complain about this horrid situation. I do that enough (and I'm not getting anywhere near quitting). I am writing to commend the Democratic Senator from my state, Jeff Bingaman, for his nay vote. Two weeks ago when Congress voted, the Democratic Congressman from our state, Tom Udall, also voted nay.

I have not considered New Mexico's Democratic Congressional delegation to be particularly progressive. But I am changing my opinion on that. Sure, Bingaman isn't currently up for re-election, but Tom Udall is running to replace Pete Domenici as our other Senator. So his nay vote was not without risk to his career.

I'm not often particularly proud to be a New Mexican (and we still have only a 40% Democratic Congressional delegation), but I am proud now. Viva la Revolucion!

Suzanne

2008-07-08T21:09:00.003-06:00

Bonnie and I are watching a movie we got from Netflix. It's a very offbeat (and very well acted) film from Scottland called "Breaking the Waves."

We're on our second night of viewing this film. It isn't a fast moving thing and it takes some attention.

But here's the really cool part: I haven't heard the song "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen in decades. I couldn't have told you it was by somebody named Leonard Cohen. In all likelihood you couldn't have either. But the song is simple, haunting and beautiful. It's beautiful in the way Donovan songs were. It's over there on the right side of this blog now for you to hear.

Is it familiar?

Story Telling

2008-06-29T13:22:00.004-06:00

I've been back at my story writing again. Here's a link to the latest. It's just for my amusement. Let me know if it amuses you too.

I should note that any story I write here (or there) may or may not (most likely the latter) be complete. So if you find yourself scratching your head and going "huh?" when you finish a story, it's more than likely simply that it's just not finished yet. Then again, there is the distinct possibility that I just did a damn poor job of getting my story told, in which case I am merely deluded in the notion that the story is done.

FISA Evesdropping Bill

2008-06-20T21:27:00.003-06:00

No they can't!

Congress can pass all the laws they want to. Our Constitution trumps their mealy-mouthed simpering capitulation to corporate greed, bribes and threats. I will not allow anyone in this illegal trumped up excuse for a government, Republican or Democrat, to take away my Fourth Amendment rights. Over your dead bodies. That is my promise.

No you can't.

The Shins - Phantom Limb

2008-06-14T21:35:00.001-06:00

Im my early teens, an idiotic Beachboys-loving surfer dude stole my girlfriend. I thought Brian Wilson to be fatuous anyway, but that sealed the deal.

So I'm not sure just why I love this song.

But on the Lighter Side - Singaporean armpit sniffer gets jail and cane

2008-06-14T21:23:00.003-06:00

It seems that repressive societies abound in pervisions. This includes "western" societies which have adopted a stiff-necked reserve in their advance of their economic prowess.

Read on...

Ireland - A Microcosm of People's Will

2008-06-14T21:04:00.005-06:00

I don't pretend to understand European politics.

The EU (European Union) is attempting to ratify an EU constitution that will provide an EU president and an united military front. I'm certain this is a vastly naive oversimplification, but it the gist of what I have seen reported.

I am not going to attempt to speak to the good or ill of such a plan. However it seems to me that we are finding all around us today, and all over this blighted planet, an attempt to marginalize the voice of the people.

Ireland was the only one of 27 member states to put the concept of this constitution to a national referendum. All of the other 26 nations made, or are in the process of making, decisions without public involvement. "Representative" diplomats are making these decisions on their populaces' behalf.

EU member states who's spokespersons have promised fidelity to this plan are calling for the isolation of Ireland. They are foisting the idea that Ireland is a maverick state and should thus be shunned.

How odd though that the only member state who considered it proper to poll its own populace has become the only viable holdout on this plan (and are now being systematically marginalized). I wonder (as I am sure millions of European citizens are beginning to wonder as well), if this referendum were more universally applied, if the nay vote might resound en masse.

Tim Russert, Dead at 58 - the End of an Era

2008-06-13T16:09:00.008-06:00

I don't often tear up at the death of a public figure. Not even at their untimely death. Public figures are larger than life, and when they die, their largess continues to fuel the lives they left behind.

A few years back, I learned of a co-worker's death several days after it occurred. He was on a job site in Ireland and collapsed and died of a sudden massive heart attack. He had been a good friend in what were hard times for me. And my daughter, Brandy, loved him dearly. So when I learned, in an almost casual fashion, that he had died, I was stunned and hurt, and I came very close to tears in a public forum.

The announcement today of Tim Russert's death (as I learned of it while at work listening on headphones to Randi Rhodes) elicited a similar response from me. I'm not sure why. I didn't know Tim. My daughter wasn't his buddy. But it somehow felt the same way.

And it's not just because Tim was a recurrent guest in our living room, on our television. There are many such guests (though mostly they are of the serious sort - more or less - not frivolous celebrities).

Maybe it's because on Sunday mornings, Bonnie watches Meet the Press almost religiously (rather than attending a church service), and I (like the prodigal husband amid the church-going), occasionally sit in as well, and watch and listen to Tim as he serves up his brand of confession.

Maybe that's why I equate his loss with my friend's. Or maybe it's that both were Irish Catholic, and I the great atheist, still find an affinity with Irish Catholics. Don't ask me why.

I will miss you Tim. Bonnie will miss you as well. And to my modest surprise, Brandy knew you too, and she will also miss you.

Into the Light

2008-06-11T15:37:00.004-06:00

When I wrote the post below, last night, I was in a very dark place. No, I had my office light on; but my heart was dark.

I started out the evening with an unbroken, hour long rant. Poor Bonnie was my audience. When she finally announced that she could take no more and retreated to the bathtub, I proceeded here to continue the rant.

This morning, feeling marginally better about the world, I considered deleting the post I wrote last night. I decided against it because I had already received a comment and I didn't want to rudely wipe out that comment along with my post. And I also decided that I had made some salient points that needed making. I did, however, delete an identical post I placed on my Barack Obama blog.

Upon review, and in a better spirit now as I write this, I realize I said absolutely nothing in the previous post with which I now disagree. It's simply that I was writing in a state of despair last night, and while I think it's healthy for us to get in touch with our inner despair from time to time, we also need to examine things through the eyes of hope. And no, I am not going all Pollyanna on your ass. Hope is not, at least not necessarily, the equivalent of denial.

Pondering this today, I still seriously doubt we will ever regain the place we once held in this world. The key to that is the commercialization of our culture and the stupefying of our citizens. We have been molded as a society into the world's greatest consumers. We exist, the corporate Moguls have decided, to buy, BUY, BUY. And when our personal wealth dries up, as it is doing, it is our purpose to borrow, BORROW, BORROW, so we can continue BUYING.

Well it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that this purchasing sponge of a nation is going to lose its capacity to soak up the crap that is marketed to us. The chickens have already started to come home to roost on our borrowing habits. And we ain't seen nothing yet. Consumer debt in this country is going to bankrupt half the population in the next few years. It's going to get really ugly folks. No question about it. It breaks my heart in so many ways. We're going to experience something our soft lives have ill prepared us for. You think we have poverty in this country now? Boy are you in for a shock.

Enough of the doom and gloom. It's real, but it may have a thin silver lining. I was thinking out loud the other day about how nations like Portugal, Italy and Spain used to practically rule the earth. These days only Italy, among the three, has any world standing at all. And Italy's place in the international community is pretty back-seat for all that. But not a one of these three countries is exactly some terrible poverty-stricken place. They are all relatively quiet and unassuming countries where folks get along (OK, other than the Basques in Spain), where they have national health care systems that provide adequate, if not spectacular, health care for their citizens. They're OK.

The United States started out as an unassuming agrarian society. Throwing off King George's yoke made us big shakes in Europe for a bit, but if you wanted sophisticated world-class society, you generally avoided the States. It really wasn't until the Second World War that the US gained the foothold we have come to assume as ours' ever since. So maybe, after the dust of poverty settles and we have picked ourselves back out of the ashes, we'll just, more or less, end up back where we started.

Hell, as we sift through the debris, we might even discover that old Constitution beneath the dust and ashes. And we may shake it off and re-read it. And who knows, we might even work really hard to educate the whole populace so they understand it this time. And we could become the new Portugal or Spain. We may even become an Italy. And it may all be for the better. We could go back to being farmers and furniture makers and just mind our own business.

And our grandchildren may honor us.

Change We Can Fantasize About

2008-06-10T20:04:00.008-06:00

I finally got my Obama shirt in the mail yesterday.

I feel for Bonnie. I spent this whole evening haranguing her (and 99 percent of our culture) for our crimes against humanity. Every once in awhile, something snaps in me. I reach some maximum density of a sense-of-atrocity, and I enter into a meltdown. I did that tonight.

No. I guess it's been creeping up for a while. These things do. For instance, I have had my ear firmly placed against the cold (or often hot) train tracks for years now, and I recognized the face of this dollar/oil crisis months ago when it first started to gain public recognition as a new player on the stage. I knew it because its face has been described in detail for a long time if you knew where to look. This daemon is not the newcomer many in our culture imagine it to be.

In fact, our personal bogeyman, Osama Bin Laden, helped portend (and encouraged the hastening on the scene of) this monster. And yes, it will unquestionably be our downfall.

America's greatness was our Constitution and its recognition that all men are created equal. Note that 2/3-type people were not considered men, and certainly, neither were women. We had a partial solution to world peace and prosperity, but we forgot to include half the population along the lines of sex, and another 4/5ths along the lines of race. Our great promise to the world was never meant for more than one in ten.

And that, and the greed of those who saw ripe pickings in our depravity, has spelled our downfall.

We will never be great again.

Mr. Obama has my vote. I truly believe in his honesty and forthrightness. And I honestly accept that his visions, coupled with an active public, are what our country needs. But I don't believe for a moment, I am devastated to realize, that it will be nearly enough to return us to the place of moral authority, and of championing of the downtrodden, that we once held. The world has come to fear and despise us (not necessarily in that order), and they do so rightly.

Germany and Japan regained the world's trust after the second World War, by their nations' public contrition; by a national sense of shame and need for redemption. Germany occasionally makes our modern world nervous when neo-nazism starts to raise its ugly head. We remember too well how that country became evil personified.

Russia has failed to find any similar recompense in the world's eyes. Putin is a product of that country's lack of craving for atonement, not the cause of it.

I cannot see any societal yearning for redemption or sense of shame shaping America. I see pockets of it. I see strong pockets. But I don't see anything even approaching a public mood along those lines. I think Americans have lost the ability to even know that that is in order. We have forgotten our roots. We have forgotten the face of our fathers. Those who wish us to be gone from the earth are well within their rights.

STOP BUSH NOW!

2008-06-10T10:03:00.004-06:00

How much longer can we continue to allow the madman in the White House to saber rattle and threaten countries who do not pose the harm he claims they do? This man must be stopped. Now. We will all be to blame if he attacks Iran. STOP HIM NOW.

McClellan's Been a-Tellin'

2008-05-30T02:14:00.009-06:00

This is turning into a great week. Alright, I have to give the various former Presidential press secretaries their due when they complain of Scott McClellan's improprietous tell-all book. "He should have stepped down if he felt that way." "He should have waited until Bush was out of office." "He should have been more respectful." "Future Presidents may be less candid with their press secretaries."

Fine. Great points all. And thus, as John Dean, last night on Countdown stated, McClellan's future will forever be dogged.

But I really don't care how ol' Scotty goes down. I am, however, interested in the carnage he leaves behind. Yes, very interested.

And so is Congress. Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) has expressed a sincere interest in hauling McClellan in front of the House Judiciary Committee. McClellan was evasive in his response to Keith Olberman last night when pressed as to whether or not he would appear. I would think a subpoena would easily cure him of his hesitancy; any claim of Executive Privilege by the Whitewashed House would be meaningless at this point.

And Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Chris Matthews, and Jessica Yellin -- currently a CNN correspondent who covered the White House for ABC News and MSNBC in 2002 and 2003, have all come out on the heels of McClellan's revelations with revelations of their own. They are beginning to reveal how the White House and Pentagon both manipulated information to the public via the press, especially in the run up to war and in the early prosecution of the war.

All this after just two days of the news "cycle." I'm really hoping that this is merely a sneak peak into the future. I'm hoping and praying to see it all come crumbling down. Ultimately, I want to see Bush, Cheney and Rove in handcuffs, briefcases ineffectively poised to conceal their faces. That's a big step from where things stand now, but this latest bombshell may finally be the one that gets things going. And avalanches build up steam at alarming rates. So I continue to hope.

And it's not about revenge. It's about a nation built on the rule of law. As I heard someone mention yesterday, if Nixon had been prosecuted for his crimes, and if Reagan had been prosecuted for Iran-Contra, we might not have seen the brazen disregard for the law by this administration. So if these guys are not prosecuted in this round, what future abomination of an administration might our children be faced with? This isn't about politics. It's about the preservation of our nation.

Here is a salient and revealing Salon article worth reading.

New Blog - on Barack Obama's Site

2008-05-23T18:18:00.002-06:00

I am posting on Barack Obama's site now. I have just one post to date. I will attempt to keep both blogs current.

Departed Gray Matter Too

Another Brick ... and a Wall

2008-05-10T04:24:00.020-06:00

Busy has been the word.

This past month, since Bonnie and I returned from Hawaii, we have been busy.

Did I ever tell you how much I hate the word busy? I mean, it is used to pass off so many forgetfulness's ("I'm sorry I forgot about your birthday, I was busy," or "I know I said I'd get that done, but I've been busy."). And the very act of being busy is referred to as busy-ness, or as we normally spell (and pronounce) it: business. But business does not invoke the empty-handed excuse that merely being busy does. Does it?

Soliloquy aside, the month of April found Bonnie and me neck-deep in the business of home improvements (and yes Bonnie and me is correct language usage). More specifically, we have been working on yard improvements.

As a child I despised anything that related to yard work. My dad was a farmer and always had a vegetable garden going. And we had an acre of lawn, half of which was on an extremely steep hill, which needed mowing constantly (this was in Hawaii which is still in its first growing season {think about it}). We had weeds that, left unattended, would grow to heights rivaling the great sequoias. As the oldest son, it was my constant job to mow the lawn (wearing crampons to prevent my fall into the abyss below), weed the veggie garden, and wrestle down the marauding army of weeds. I was provided weekday reprieve from these tasks during the school year, but my summers were an endless stream of yard work. Naturally, I developed a black thumb. Plants die just for being in the same hemisphere that I am walking through.

Or at least that's how it used to be. Bonnie has changed that for me. Her unabashed love of all things growing has somehow magically finally rubbed off on me. I'm not sure when this happened, but ever since we bought our current house (a bit over three years ago), I just can't seem to get enough of yard improvement. This started out as landscape architecture of one form or another, but has evolved to include the actual planting and nurturing of those little (and large) green things themselves. As I was working the soil last weekend, I actually found myself pondering that I finally understood why people talk to their plants.

My black thumb has turned green! Bonnie still performs the lion's share of the plant care around the yard, but I have become an integral part of that work. And I create spaces for plantlife to display itself in.

So our April workload consisted of three components: 1) Increasing the back-yard wall height from 4 to 7 feet high, 2) nurturing our winter sleepers back to life and planting new life for this season, and 3) preparing and planting a vegetable garden.

Item 1 was the most work intensive of the above. In fact, not since the great deck I built in Oregon, and for which my abandonment thereof I have been often and severely chastised, have I put as much effort and expense into an outdoor project. I have, however, redeemed myself for having abandoned the aforementioned deck. This is truly a work of art of which I am proud. I have photos sprinkled here, but just sitting in our back yard is the best way to enjoy it. I built it of redwood and then painted it. That description says fence, but I call it a wall. And it looks nothing like a fence, though one of the hobbits next door told me last night that I had built a "handsom fence." She is about 85 years old, and is thus forgiven.

Our veggie garden is small. We may or may not expand it next year. We'll see how it works out this season. We planted cilantro, squash (two types I think), tomatoes (also two types), some bell peppers, jalapeno and serrano peppers, carrots, sweet peas, string beans (or some such), and one or two others that don't come to mind at the moment. I love watering this little patch of earth. We planted it just a week ago, so we haven't had to start weeding yet, but that will ensue before long. I can't wait for the harvest.

Bonnie's floral array is beautiful this year. I dont' know what else to say. The photos speak for themselves. I think our yard brings us our greatest joy. It looks like a place of endless relaxation. In fact, it is a place of endless endeavor, as that is what is required to maintain the appearance of a haven of escape. But we both love the work. In fact, we had planned on getting out today (it's 5:15 AM at the moment, so don't give me shit for wasting the day just yet), but decided last night that there were sufficient chores here in our yard to keep us busy today. Tomorrow is Mother's Day and that speaks for itself (though this deserves its own blog entry - origins of Mother's Day and all - not just a Hallmark/1-800-SendLotsofFlowers holiday).

As noted above, our biggest April project was my wall. Then there was Roger Waters' Wall. Brandy and I flew up to Denver on the last day of April and saw the old Pink Floyd minstral live on stage. What a show! Ten days later, I am still reliving moments of the performance. It was a father-daughter moment that I will cherish for many long years.

As we entered the arena, we were all admonished not to bring in cameras or other recording equipment. Of course everybody had cellphones, and none of these were disallowed. The audience was awash with glowing cellphone screens throughout the concert, as revelers sought to capture snippets of scene or song in their flash memory. I attempted this myself, but Brandy is a better photographer and has a better phone (my sacrifice to her gods). The concert photos here are courtesy Brandy.

No Country for Good Men

2008-04-24T22:00:00.004-06:00

You know, I really don't mind that Hillary fights dirty. I just wish she wasn't so obviously a chameleon. I guess I should be glad that she has shown her true colors. Several months ago, I was ready to accept her, reasonably gladly, as our best hope. She has shown her stripes now. Now I know that a Hillary presidency would be a Bush presidency every bit as much as a McCain presidency would be.

Could anybody be more transparently fake? OK, bad question. Mitt Romney was much more obviously fake. The other twit from New York, what's his name, was nearly as bad. Hillary is fake in a more cleverly deceitful way (she had me fooled for months). I saw right through Romney and Whosis right away.

And she is going to fool bigoted Americans who fancy themselves Democrats and Liberals right into electing her president. Or lacking that, she's going to fool them into voting entirely against their own interests and voting in McSame just to satisfy their fears and hatreds. And she'll smile with robotic pretense, and wait four years.

People say they don't know Barak. But the truth is that Americans have no ability to judge character. The reasons are myriad. But the reality is unequivocal. We don't elect politicians with character because we couldn't identify character if our lives depended on it.

As may well be the case.

Phony as a 3-dollar bill

2008-04-23T12:19:00.005-06:00

After the Pennsylvania vote, Hillary says, "the tide is turning."

That's kind of like cheating on a test and telling dirty lies about the best student in class, and then strutting about proudly when you get an A and the other student gets an A-minus.

Why Obama Can’t “Close the Deal”

2008-04-23T07:10:00.003-06:00

There’s been a lot of talk this morning about why Barak Obama can’t make this nomination his. There is valid concern that even though Obama leads in delegates, he wins some races and loses some races, and this doesn’t bode well for a race against McCain.

Nobody that I have heard has been able to pronounce a plausible reason for this apparent weakness in his campaign. Some point to Hillary as being such a strong candidate. They suggest that both candidates are great candidates, and that people are just torn between two greats. Give me a break. Hillary Clinton has shown herself to be little better than McCain in her tactics and rhetoric. Yes, she comes off as intelligent and experienced. But she’s down to saber rattling to get hawk votes, and that is simply deplorable. While I think there are probably some moderate Democrats who approve of the hawk talk, this is likely to disaffect even more Democrats. And her continued determination to turn all things Obama into questions of patriotism, and questions about his character (a tactic very absent from Obama’s own campaign), shows a despicable side that Democrats have come to associate with Karl Rove. That certainly isn’t what is causing the vote to turn as often as not to her over Obama.

So what is the reason? I’m afraid that the answer is simple and that it’s insidious. America is racist. I’m not saying that all Americans are racist (I’m not, and many of us are not). But America herself is racist. We have racist institutions and a racist economy. Our schools reflect our racism. Our prisons reflect our racism. It’s reflected in the service industries and in the food processing industries. Unfortunately, racism is a steaming cancer at the core of our nation. I sympathize with Reverend Wright’s sentiments. Not because I hate America, but because America refuses to face up to this fact. We put window dressing all around the ugly outbreaks of this disease, and we pretend we have solved our racism. We even argue that affirmative action is no longer necessary (if it ever was) because racial inequality has been eradicated.

Barak Obama tried to address this a month ago when the Reverend Wright “story” broke. I put “story” in quotation marks because it wasn’t a story. It was a deliberately placed distraction. And it was itself, a play of that famous “race card.”

The Republican Party may openly underwrite racism, but it’s not a phenomenon limited to conservatives. I listen to liberal pundits on the radio fairly regularly, and the folks that call in to those shows are by and large liberal themselves. Yet I have heard them time and time again say that Obama shouldn’t run because “America isn’t ready to elect a black man President,” or even, “America will never elect a black man President.” I am beginning to worry that this may be true. But to state that as a reason for Obama not to run, is racist itself. Yet I’m sure those folks wouldn’t consider themselves racist. As I said, it is insidious. This morning on the Bill Press radio show, a caller actually suggested that Obama ought to accept Hillary's offer to "ride in the back of the bus." He was referring, of course, to Hillary's offer of the Veep position to Obama, but the expression was clearly racist. Bill Press not only did not chastise the caller for the expression, he repeated it himself!

Barak Obama is so much more a candidate than any I have had the opportunity to vote for in my lifetime. With regard to the state of American politics, this man is more honest than any viable Presidential candidate I have ever seen. Instead of fighting as dirty as Hillary, he attempts to raise the discussion. But Clinton and the media insist on pulling it back down into the dirt. And it’s not merely to destroy Obama, but much more importantly, it’s to destroy the vision. American politics as usual, and the corporate interests it serves, cannot afford to tolerate a vision of hope. They cannot allow people to control their own destinies. They have us all by the short hairs and that suits them just fine. Hillary is totally sold out to that reality, as surely as John McCain is. Obama is the only hope we have going. And any time his populist message begins to raise his numbers above the fray, all that is needed is a subtle reminder to our dark hearts that he is after all, black.

More Photos from Paradise

2008-04-17T20:22:00.032-06:00

As promised, here are more photos from Bonnie's and my recent trip to Hawaii. Specifically, the photos below are all from our stay on the island of Kauai.

Sunrise, from our porch on our first morning. This photo has not been modified. But my heart was as I watched this unfold.

Looking across the property on which our little bungalow, "Taro Patch Hale," was located.

A small tributary stream of the Hanalei River, running adjacent to Taro Patch Hale's "yard."

White ginger. I remember the fragrance of these flowers as sweeter than perfume. Alas the loss of my sense of smell.

Also on the Taro Patch grounds, I don't know the name of these dainty blossoms.

Lichen on the trunk and branches of a plumeria tree.

A small sampling of our host's Zen hobby.

Our Taro Patch Hale accommodations.

A longer view of our "hotel."

Later that afternoon; Kiluea Point Lighthouse, a few miles East of Hanalei.

This is the trail Bonnie and I took on our second day on Kauai. The trail, after eleven arduous miles, finds its way to Kalalau Valley (see the last two photos below). We hiked just the first two miles to Hanakapiai Valley. The terrain you see here is a very good example of what this trail is like. Four miles (two each way) is a workout.

A view along the way of the world famous Na Pali Coast.

Another coastal view en route.

I wish I remembered the name of the orange flowered tree (Mary would remember). The foreground tree is named Lauhala.

And I don't know what this little guy's name is, nor if he is a native. But he sat so patiently for me, just a few feet away from my camera.

More mountain splendor along the Na Pali Coast.

These are wild orchids, just growing without fanfare along the edge of the trail.

At last, our first view of Hanakapiai beach.

A deceptively tame looking wave on Hanakapiai beach. With severe rip tides and undertows, these waters claim the lives of many who are foolish enough to enter them.

Wonderfully colored rocks at the mouth of the Hanakapiai Stream.

A sand piper strolls the white wash on the beach.

A red crested cardinal sitting in an ohia tree in Kokee, two days after our hike.

A view of Kalalau Valley from the lookout 4000 feet above sea level.

And one of the most photographed views in the world. This is the east side of Kalalau Valley from the same lookout. It is to this valley the trail we took two days earlier eventually leads. I completed the hike when I was 19. I would give my eyeteeth to hike it again.

Aloha.

Hawaii - Land of my Birth

2008-04-16T22:40:00.011-06:00

I grew up in Hawaii and I spent the first 20 years of my life there. I've been gone 31 years (math majors may submit their final answers here).

Bonnie and I just spent a week and a half there. We enjoyed the first three days alone. Actually my use of the word "enjoyed" is kind of like an Exxon exec recounting his experience in the thralls of Bush's bash, as merely "stimulating."

I fled (yes, that is an accurate word choice) Hawaii thirty-one years ago. When I return now, it is never without trepidation. It is never without encountering a cascade of memory undertows that threaten to wipe me out - at last. And I always return home in an exceptionally spent state.

This time was no exception. The inclusion, on this occasion, of my siblings, and the addition of our parents' final memorial service, only served to magnify any of the usual effects Hawaii has on me.

But Hawaii still carries a magic that I cannot escape. I've chosen photos here at random. Most are from Kauai. That's where Bonnie spent our three days in paradise - in Hanalei. The lava flow into the ocean is obviously not from Kauai. It's from the Big Island. Kauai is far too ancient to sport live volcanoes. These are just a few photos that I want to share. I will share more. And I will provide a story or two to go with them. For now these will have to do.

Elitism Charge is a Smokescreen

2008-04-15T17:03:00.004-06:00

I tried to find a full transcript of the comments Barak Obama made a few days ago, in which he discussed the "bitterness" of those who "cling to guns and religion." It's hard to locate.

But let's cut to the chase here. I heard the full transcript today, read by Randi Rhodes on her new flagship, The Nova M Network. As is typical where Barak Obama is concerned, his comments were anything but off-handed and ill-chosen. Mr. Obama spoke of things that he felt he needed to say, and he said them in a way that few public speakers in our time care to or dare to match.

Obama is erudite, but that is only a surface description of his character. Notice that I didn't say, "that is only the surface of his charm," or "that is only the surface of what attracts us to him." This comes down to character. And it is very important that we realize it is a distinct difference from what makes him electable or un-electable. That is an entirely different concern.

Beyond Barak Obama's intelligence is his ability and his propensity for honesty. Pardon the inappropriateness of this, but I have to say that Barak will call a spade a spade. In fact, I am pretty darned sure that any time he makes a public apology for his, or a compatriot's, comments, it is by sheer force of his campaign management team. Reverend Wright was right. And so is Obama in his assessment of America's working class. Some of the words, phrases, and sentiments of both Wright and Obama are hard pills to swallow, but that makes them no less true. In fact we ought to listen to their message all the more.

Hillary Clinton, standard bearer and apologist for the Neo-Conservative Right, latched on Mr. Obama’s wise comments and turned them around, entirely out of context, and accused him of being elitist. John McCain, so close on Hillary’s heels that the appearances are of a single camp in lock-step solidarity, seconded this accusation.

And ever since, the media has been either, a) accusing Barak of this elitism, b) asking if this charge of elitism will affect his candidacy, or c) defending his elitism, either by trying to prove that it wasn’t elitist, or by trying to show that elitism is what we need to turn the corner on an America gone horribly off-course.

Okay, so much for preamble. Here’s the rub.

The press has fostered the assumption that Clinton’s and McCain’s elitism charges are aimed at discrediting Obama’s campaign. This is a reasonable assumption; Hillary wants to beat Obama at all costs regardless of the harm to the Democratic Party, and McCain wants to run against Hillary because the Republican machine has fully stocked arsenals with Clinton’s coordinates pre-loaded in the smart bombs’ cross-hairs.

However, neither of these candidates is really concerned with discrediting Obama in this particular instance.

Yet discredit is the game.

Let’s pay more attention to Obama’s message (this is why I tried to find a full transcript of it). Barak took pains to describe the way in which the American populace has been disappointed so often by candidates and by seated representatives. He took pains, not so much as to separate himself from this bunch, but to define them. To his great credit he didn’t spit out platitudes regarding how different he was from that fray. He gave credence to the anger, the skepticism, and, yes, the bitterness, of the American public. He didn’t condescend to them. He said, “this is your voice!” And then he indicated that he believed that together we could change things if we were honest with each other.

And it’s that message both Hillary and McCain want to discredit. Neither of their campaigns stretches very far beyond Washington as Usual in their portrayal of how they will command this country. Both campaigns are about entrenched paradigms.

It takes a hell of a lot of energy to beat inertia, and to beat entropy. Obama knows this. He isn’t unrealistic about the odds of his success. But he is certain of this: you cannot and will not make any forward movement without an honest assessment of the realities you face. You must be willing, and even compelled, to level with the public, and to elicit the public’s reciprocal response, if we are to actually achieve anything that isn’t merely another glossy-looking lie. Another glossy-looking lie like NAFTA. Or another glossy-looking lie like, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

If you respect the citizenry you are asking to vote for you, you have to entrust them with the truth. And you have to respect them with their assessment of the same.

And it is that truth that neither Clinton, nor McCain, can allow the American Public to be privy too. Because both of these inferior candidates are sold out entirely to the vested interests that feather their nests, and that have defined nearly every minute of their sold-out lives.

Tax Day

2008-04-15T12:17:00.005-06:00

Man oh man, we're half way through April and I haven't blogged once. I keep promising to get back here and catch up. And I will. But this will just be a short note written during my lunch hour (half hour actually; and half over already at that).

All the presidential candidates are talking about taxes today. It's April 15, so go figure. Barak is saying that if we can spend $10 billion monthly in Iraq, we can do so to build American infrastructure. I buy that to a degree; we are borrowing that much for Iraq, and would have to either raise taxes or continue borrowing that money if we were to spend it on infrastructure. That's even if Iraq were to go bye bye. Now the fact is, we must raise taxes. But that tax raise must be a roll-back of Republican tax cuts, not increased taxes on the working/middle classes. And I'm not entirely against borrowing some of the money. At least it would be money spent building our ability to create wealth instead of spending it on bombs.

The one that really gets me, though, is McCain's proposal to roll back gas taxes for the summer months to help American citizens and the economy. The worst part of this proposal is that it will sound so inviting to a very large sector of the American public, when in fact it should cause revolt. More on this later (I need to get back to work now).

Later (the following day actually):

I was just reading on Kos how McCain is claiming that cutting the federal gas tax will save motorists as much as 20%. But poor old John was born before math was taught in schools. The federal tax on gasoline is $0.184 per gallon, about 5.4%.

But let's forget about the fuzzy math. McCain pretends (like all Repugnicans) that taxes are the great evil enemy of the middle-class pocket book. With Exxon-Mobile rolling in dough - the most profitable company in world history - they are the real enemy. But how many Americans are going to make that simple leap in logic? How many are going to see that the Republican party has become a shill for big oil (to name one of of their clients), and that it is the height of cynical hypocrisy to offer the public a tax break instead of going after the real crooks instead? And just where does McCain intend to find the money to replace the revenue he will be denying the Federal government by eliminating this tax? From his ass?

No folks. That money will come from our pocket books after all. And it will come with interest owed since it will merely be one more line item on our national debt.

Don't let this pandering liar fool you at the pump. Wake up and smell the dirty oil on his lips.

Incoming

2008-03-26T06:49:00.005-06:00

I'm going to start posting here more often. Just as soon as I can get away from this sniper fire.

gloppened

2008-03-25T15:50:00.003-06:00

Bonnie got me this great day-at-a-time calendar for my desk at work. Each day I have a new word or phrase from forgotten English. Today's is "gloppened."

The word means (or did so once upon a time) surprised.

The following is the anecdotal account that accompanies this word on my calendar:

Blessing the Flour
A reenactment of this ancient custom takes place near Limerstone, on the Isle of Wight, each year on this date. The ritual distribution of flour is linked to the Tichborne Dole, a charity initiated in 1150. It seems that Sir Roger Tichborne ruled the House of Tichborne with little compassion. But in the spirit of Lady Godiva, his kindhearted wife, Lady Mabella, who lay dying, wished to provide the local poor with a cushion in the event of a bad harvest. In response to her request, stingy Sir Roger mockingly
offered to set aside a parcel of farmland for the poor if she could circumscribe it while a stick was burned to mark time. To his horror and surprise, she fell to her knees and pitifully crawled out a twenty-three-acre tract, still known as "The Crawls," in the allotted period. She then pronounced a curse on any Tichborne descendant who failed to honor this pledge, and promptly died.

That sure would have gloppened me.

Spring

2008-03-15T08:47:00.004-06:00

I haven't posted here in awhile. I realized my posts were becoming steadily more angry and frustrated. I started this blog to post more than my political opinions. Unfortunately it has devolved into that, and the opinions have become less and less insightful and more and more predictable; it was time to take a break.

This morning is a good time to post again. For starters I am going to be hanging a garden gate which I started making last weekend and which I have been painting with several coats all week. Bonnie's back yard is a constant source of creative interest and endeavor for me, and a nice thing to post on. I'll put up a photo of the gate later on (although in reality a photo about one month from now will be the one really worth posting, with all the spring blooming not yet here).

We're off to Hawaii in two weeks for a family memorial (my siblings and I were all raised there and most of us were born there). The memorial is a bit late; our mother died over 30 years ago and our father died a year and a half ago. The memorial will be a placing of our father's ashes and our mother's symbolic ashes under a headstone in a cemetery on Kauai. This will unite them again as seems fitting. We will follow with a second ceremony on the Big Island in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which my father loved, where we will spread more of his ashes.

When we return I am going to build a wooden extension on top of the cinder block wall we have separating our back yard from the arroyo behind us. Ours is the shortest wall on the street which makes our house a potential attraction to would-be thieves wandering the arroyo trail. I am very excited about building this wall extension. After two years discussing a dozen options, making and breaking plans, and letting things simmer, Bonnie and I finally arrived at a solid plan last weekend. It's going to be very attractive. I'll post a photo of our work when it's finished as well. That should be near the end of April, and the yard should be in full bloom then.

I had started this post also intending to copy and respond to a particularly vitriolic comment left last night on this blog. I'll save that for later if at all. It's nice to write about nicer things occasionally.

Expose the Lies - Part II

2008-02-20T12:10:00.004-07:00

Beth, I appreciate your comment to part 1 of this short series. You are correct in pointing out that Clinton's camp is at least partly responsible for the blanket of lies surrounding Obama that is beginning to spread through the media. I agree that Obama's camp is very unlikely to be defeated by Clinton at this point. And finally, I agree that the right wing, kool-aid drinking Republicans' minds won't be changed no matter how we respond.

The group I am most concerned with is those in the middle or somewhat left of center who aren't plugged in enough to be aware of all the nuances.

For instance, and it's a big one: This clip, going around, of Michele Obama, supposedly saying that this is the first time in her adult life in which she is proud of her country, has been deliberately doctored, and is being replayed in it's doctored form without comment by the main stream press. The word "really" has been stricken before the word "proud." When taken in its unedited form, "... first time in my adult life that I have been really proud of my country," the meaning changes completely.

I caught this today as Thom Hartmann unknowingly played the edited clip, and I immediately tried to inform him. Unfortunately that was by email, as I cannot call talk shows from work. To my relief, a caller pointed it out to him shortly thereafter. Another caller played the uncut C-SPAN clip of this in which she clearly said "really." Thom, to his credit continued to bring this up for the rest of his show and called the editing of the clip "mind-boggling."

In the meantime, Obama has thought it necessary to clarify his wife's comments - totally un-necessarily if the rightwing evildoers weren't out trying to manipulate reality. And I have heard several people on "our side" saying Michele Obama should apologize. This is exactly the problem I am concerned with. We need to shout out the truth and expose the liars and impugn the Republican Party for their complicity. If we don't, Obama is going to start receiving friendly fire, and that would disenfranchise all of us who hope for change.

Let's Expose the Lies

2008-02-13T14:49:00.002-07:00

I just read on the Washington Post that Clinton is relenting on her intent not to debate Obama on MSNBC. Good.

Then I read some of the comments left by readers. Some were thoughtful, some provocative; the usual mix.

Except that some were liberally sprinkled throughout by bots. At least two versions of the same "story" were repeated several times among the comments. They were stories regarding some thoughtless words spoken by Obama's preacher friend regarding a missing teenage girl. I have no idea if the story is true or not. I do know that this is a deliberate smear and it's only the beginning what promises to be a gigantic smear campaign - probably unparalleled in our history.

I think we who are informed, and who hate the right wing lies, owe it to America to prepare ourselves to fight fight fight. We cannot allow this sewage to be dumped raw into the American conscience. I think we need something concerted. I'm not sure how this can be done. I'm not talking about a reverse smear campaign. I'm talking about an offensive defense. Not only point out the lies (which will require research to verify), but even more importantly, point out and condemn the liars and the Republican Party and their candidate by extension. When they shout their lies, we need to scream the truth.

Any ideas on how we can make this broadband?

Hope for Liberality

2008-02-13T12:06:00.004-07:00

John McCain is accusing Barak Obama of having the most liberal voting record in the Senate. First of all, John, you should get your facts straight. Bernie Sanders has the most liberal voting record. In fact, during the 2004 Presidential race, John Kerry was accused of having the most liberal voting record. Also not true back then.

Speaking for myself, I would be delighted if Obama did in fact hold the liberal voting record. John McCain accusing Barak of having the most liberal voting record is kind of like a slave trader accusing an abolitionist of freeing the most slaves. The accusation would most certainly put off slave owners, but it would delight freedom loving people. In the same manner, the only people who will be deterred by McCain's accusation are one of the following three:

1) The Republican Party elite who’s' agenda it is to disenfranchise the public to the advantage of a greedy minority,
2) Cruel and heartless people who relish seeing the poor, the handicapped, and the "different" suffer (some of these people are in category 1, and vise versa), or
3) An unfortunately large populace which has been hoodwinked into believing conservatism is about morality and righteous strength (it's not; it's about categories 1 and 2, but especially category 1).

One percent of the world's population owns 80% of the world's wealth. The concentrations are skewed here in the United States, but this is truly a global phenomenon. And the Republican party of the United States’ mission is to ensure that "balance" remains. They are not alone in this. Despotic regimes, global corporations, old world gentry, military contractors, and others of their ilk are all in this together.

In fact one of their favorite lies is that of a dreaded one-world government. It's a smokescreen used to hide their very real one-world cabal. And naturally they don't want competition or for that matter any planet-spanning law enforcing entity that might expose them or get in their way. So they demonize the United Nations as the leader of this mythical one-world government.

Many people complain (with justification) about the ineffectualness of the United Nations. In fact, those who deliberately demonize this organization use this trait as one of their criticisms. In fact, of course, this ineffectualness is due primarily to the deliberate obstructions of those in the obscene wealth cabal.

We can use more liberalism. In fact we are long overdue for it. But what we need to do as (hopefully) enlightened people is to help, in this season, to educate those in category 3 of the truth. This isn’t a small task. And it doesn’t happen by pointing out that they are stupid or have been tricked or that their morals are wrong or misguided. It happens by opening their eyes up to what can be theirs. It happens when they are offered hope. It happens when they realize that the limitations they have taken for granted are false, and can be dispensed with.

After all, this is what Barak has started to make happen for those who have already started to grasp what is happening in this “movement” of hope. And no, it’s not about Mr. Obama himself. And I think he would be the first to decry any attempt to idolize him (at least as the goal of the movement). It’s about us all (except the greedy – they lose) understanding our right and liberties as citizens of this country and the world.

And you thought illegal kidney harvesting was an urban myth.

2008-02-07T12:20:00.000-07:00

Police arrest kidney scam fugitive: official
Friday Feb 8 05:23 AEDT

Police in Nepal are holding a man who is believed to have masterminded India's biggest illegal kidney transplant racket, officials said.

Indian national Amit Kumar was arrested at a hotel at Sauraha town in Chitwan province Thursday evening, said Kiran Gautam, police deputy inspector general, told AFP by phone.
The 40-year-old was staying at the Hotel Wildlife Resort in Sauraha, when police made the search, Gautam said from Chitwan, 80 kilometres southwest of Kathmandu.

Indian media reported that Kumar fled to Nepal after the multi-million-dollar scandal was uncovered last month.

Last week international police organisation Interpol issued arrest notices for Kumar and his brother Jeevan Rawat, 36 "for illegal transplanting of kidneys, cheating and criminal conspiracy."

Gautam said: "Police searched the hotel after they received information that the Indian national was staying in the hotel."

He added that Kumar had confessed about his illegal kidney business to police during preliminary investigation.

"He (Amit Kumar) will be sent to Kathmandu early Friday morning for further investigation," Gautam said.

He also said police recovered some euros, dollars and Indian currency from in the raid Kumar.
"It is believed that during the past eight years around 500 people were forcibly operated on and their kidneys transplanted to foreign patients in a secret operating theatre," the global police body said.

The rest of the story...

One for Democracy

2008-02-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

"The court confirms that we don't have an imperial presidency in this country."

Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney
with the Natural Resources Defense Council discussing the decision of U.S.
District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, disallowing the Bush Administration's
attempt to exempt the Navy from rules governing the use of sonar near whale
pooulations.

"It properly rejected the president's attempted end run around the will of Congress and an order of the federal court," he said.

Read more Here.

That's What's in a Name

2008-01-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, Barak Obama's middle name is Hussein.

And Hussein means Beautiful Child. It seems to me Barak's parents felt blessed when he was born. Let's not use his name as a curse.

There I go getting hopeful again

2008-01-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

So Dick Cheney's older daughter (the one who hasn't "disgraced" herself by being gay) is joining Mitt Romney's camp as a Middle East expert (insert the sound of Chris Matthews' "Hah!" here). This is code for "he's our guy" from the Neocon camp.

Several polls show John McCain as the only Republican candidate who could beat either Obama, Clinton or Edwards (with Edwards being the strongest of the three against McCain). Of course that's one reason Edwards' candidacy has been marginalized. But it's the media who is marginalizing him, and they are not necessarily in favor of the Republican candidates. They just don't want a president with corporate reform on his mind - which is Edward's hallmark.

Now in actuality, once the Dems have picked their candidate, the currently simmering smear machine will come to full boil. Barak will not only be Muslim, but will have masterminded 9/11. Hillary will be caught conspiring to enact legislation that will forcibly remove all male CEO's, presidents, executives, and managers, to have them replaced with lesbians. We know the drill. Counter punching will need to be furious to avoid a complete meltdown of support from the marginally informed who eat this stuff up like breakfast cereal.

Still, my gut instinct (to say nothing of the polls) tells me that Mitt will be much easier to beat than will be McCain. So I welcome Republican attacks on McCain with glee. There are the misguided progressive souls who conclude that this means McCain would actually be a good choice for president. Smack! don't think that way ya dolts! He'd be a nightmare.

But the Neocon machine is going to do absolutely everything it can to prevent McCain from getting the nod, and will work overtime to make sure that Mitt is the man. Why? Because he is their perfect shill; even more so than Dubya. It really is that simple.

I saw a You Tube video today, prepared by Romney's camp, that "proved" that the Democrats would most like to run against McCain. I laughed out loud. This is high comedy. Please my dear Republicans, eat your own. It makes me hopeful. Independent voters will flock to McCain. Not all of them, but enough of them. But by and large they will absolutely shun Romney.

And then on the lighter side...

2008-01-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

Jack wakes up with a huge hangover after attending his company's Christmas Party. He didn't even remember how he got home from the party. As bad as he was feeling, he wondered if he did something wrong. Jack had to force himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he saw is a couple of aspirins next to a glass of water on the side table. And, next to them, a single red rose! Jack sits up and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. He looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotlessly clean. So is the rest of the house. He takes the aspirins, cringes when he sees a huge black eye staring back at him in the bathroom mirror. Then he notices a note hanging on the corner of the mirror written in red with little hearts on it and a kiss mark from his wife in lipstick: "Honey, breakfast is on the stove, I left early to get groceries to make you your favorite dinner tonight. I love you, darling! Love, Jillian. "He stumbles to the kitchen and sure enough, there is hot breakfast, steaming hot coffee and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating. Jack asks, "Son... what happened last night?"

"Well, you came home after 3 A.M., drunk and out of your mind. You fell over the coffee table and broke it, and then you puked in the hallway, and got that black eye when you ran into the door. "Confused, he asked his son, "So, why is everything in such perfect order and so clean? I have a rose, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me??

"His son replies, "Oh THAT!... Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you screamed, "Leave me alone bitch, I'm married!!"

Broken Coffee Table $239.99
Hot Breakfast $4.20
Two Aspirins $.38
Saying the right thing, at the right time......PRICELESS

Goodbye Dennis

2008-01-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

I am very sad today; Congressman Dennis Kucinich announced today that he will be dropping out of the Democratic race for President. It has been apparent since almost the beginning that his chances were beyond slim, and the media has gone out of its way to further marginalize his candidacy. But I vowed to vote for him in the Primary election and had fully intended upon doing so twelve days from now.

Kucinich raised the level of debate. He was the only candidate who never had to make excuses for his voting record. His voting record has always been in accord with his professed principles. What does this say about us as a nation? Even as progressive liberals, how do we account for our cavalier disregard for this best of all candidates? We get pissed off when a candidate votes in a way that appears to be opposite to their stated aims. And when they refuse to simply admit that they were bought off, we get even more pissed. Yet we refuse to support a candidacy that is the antithesis of this cancer. Why???

Ok, it's over. As I said, I am very sad. But now I owe my vote come February 5th to the Democratic Party, and I need to make it count best. I'm thinking Edwards as the next best thing (though he's not fit to lick Kucinich's boots). But I have placed a survey at the right. Tell me what you think. For whom should I vote?

Space, the Final Affront

2008-01-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

I have always been a science, and science fiction, buff, and have believed in backing our space program. I am fully aware of how much it has been used militarily, and that many folks see it as a waste of money desperately needed here earthside. Nonetheless my love for all things space travel related has continued unabated.

That is until now.

Space Tourism has been touted as an up and coming industry these past several years. According to this article, this "dream" is one step closer. Well goodie for these guys. I'm sure it's going to be just wonderful.

But as far as I'm concerned, the timing is what is all wrong. We are arguably on the brink of a very bad recession, if not an outright depression, and the core reason (though you won't hear about it in the mainstream media) is that the rich are robbing us blind. Sending jobs overseas, and rewarding these actions with tax breaks; turning a blind eye to illegal immigration, which in turn lowers wages across the board; lowering taxes on the rich; sending billions and billions unaccountably to Iraq; all this has drained the middle class while rewarding the super rich with our hard-earned money.

And who gets to take tourist trips into space? Well the article says the company has 200 firm reservations with $30 million in deposits. My math tells me that means these would-be astronautical travelers have each plopped down $150,000 as a deposit. I wonder how much the full trip costs.

I find this to be an obscene flaunting of this pirated wealth in the faces of those of us (the vast majority that is) who are being fleeced.

I heard Congressman Robert Wexler on a radio show this morning. He suggested that the first thing we ought to be doing right now is repealing Bush's tax cuts. I agree to that - as a start anyway. Instead Bush is looking for ways to put the lion's share of his "relief package" into the hands of the robber barons.

On second thought, maybe all of these guys ought to be flown into space.

One way.

Paper or Canvas?

2008-01-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

San Jose, California has taken steps toward banning plastic bags. They will join San Francisco, Oakland and a few European cities. Even China and South Africa have entered this progressive movement.

I still tend to forget to ask for paper, or even better, to take a canvas bag with me when I go to the store. I think I'm going to make a hanger for our canvas bags by the front door so I remember to grab some on the way out. I've noticed the store clerks no longer asking, and I don't think I see paper bags there any more. That is all except for Whole Foods where I don't think they have plastic bags. I would shop there all the time if I were rich.

Even though I am hardly an example of what the progressive way I would like us all to be, I am not afraid of going one further and suggesting an even more profound change. I would like to see in-store packaging undergo a major change. I don't know how plastic shopping bag garbage and litter compare to packaging garbage and litter, but I would imagine the volume and resultant pollution is similar. And green packaging is a growth industry. It's generally more expensive, but only because the true costs of pollutive packaging are externalized (in the form of pollution, depletion of resources, etc.) So we still pay for it; the manufactureres just don't.

The bottom line is that we need legislation. The free market will work at innovation when forced to by legislation. Until then, only the occasional visionary is going to take action.

New Exquisite Corpse

2008-01-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

I've been intending to write this for some time and have simply not gotten around to it. Now I find myself shamed into it because my compatriots who have blogged this were thanked for doing a couple of days ago.

I have contributed to an on-line art format for about three years. I wrote somewhere below about it's sad demise. I still maintain a link to that site at the right, but I have not written about, nor provided a link to, that site's most valid successor, New Exquisite Corpse dot net. I am doing so now.

This site was created and is maintained by my online friend, Shae. I have a link to her blog, Shae's Place, at the right as well (and have added one to her New Exquisite Corpse site too).

We are currently about 30 members strong, but are looking for fresh blood (just a vial or two; not enough to turn you into a corpse). If you have a knack for digital art, a computer, email account, and software such as Photoshop (anything that will edit and create Jpeg files), why not take a peek. And if you are interested you should also check out the old site, An Exquisite Corpse, which though inactive still contains about 1,000 corpses (what we call this collaborative art form). I suggest this because our new site is in its infancy, but the old site can show you an exceedingly broad spectrum of the type of art we have collaborated on in the past.

Both old and new sites provide an in-depth explanation of the origin of Exquisite Corpses and why they carry that moniker. The history is interesting and quirky. I really hope to get a few takers here.

By the way, this is the latest output from the new site. I was player number two (from top to bottom). There are four players all-together:

Progressives aren't Progressive unless they are Progressive

2008-01-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

I came home tonight to frozen pipes. I had planned on getting to this right away because I am really concerned about the topic on which I will write below, but I needed to take care of my water problems first. As it stands now, we still have no water, but we have called the city water department, and set up a blow dryer to spew its pitiful output on what I hope is the inlet pipe behind a vent in my crawl space.

But this is what I wanted to talk about:

I think we have some marvelous Democratic candidates currently running for the United States Presidency. I have this for one and this against another, and in my heart of hearts I would love to think of Dennis Kucinich the next time I hear Hail to the Chief played, but all in all, each of the remaining five candidates is real catch. Especially when compared to anyone running on the God's Old Party ticket.

The way I think about my decision in selecting our next Executive is based on their character, their stand on issues that matter (as opposed to those created by Karl Rove merely for the purpose of division and contention), and maybe lastly, on the way in which they break the mold. Of the three media-anointed "front runners," John Edwards most piques my interest based on these criteria. He is old-guard in that he is a white male. And my interest in him over Obama and Clinton is entirely divorced from that fact. If I felt all three were wholly equal, I would only then take into consideration race and sex.

However that is not to say that race and/or sex are not important barriers to break, especially when we have such an unprecedented opportunity. But let me clarify my thinking: I would not choose a candidate based on race or sex over a candidate I felt more qualified. I would, however, not exclude a candidate from my choice due to the impression that they were unelectable based on their race or sex.

This has to be couched in terms of "all else being equal." Qualifications should be paramount. But even qualifications are nuanced and open to discussion and interpretation. What I am getting at though, is the crap I continue to hear such as, "Well I have lots of respect for Senator Obama, but let's face it, America is not ready to vote for a black." And I listen to progressive talk radio and that is where I keep hearing this absolutely reprehensible line spoken by caller after caller. I am appalled by the number of racists in denial in our own ranks!

I haven't heard this argument so much in regard to Clinton and her sex, but the same goes for that. To say we shouldn't nominate a candidate based on electability, if the credentials in question are in regard to their qualifications, is a good argument and one to be considered. But to say we shouldn't nominate a candidate based on electability if the credentials are their race or sex is just simply wrong. And worst of all, I have heard this argument made by progressives.

Let's face it people; this is akin to the argument that bi-racial marriages are bad because of the way in which the children will be persecuted. To say that taking affirmative action against regressive social standards is wrong because the status quo will fight back hard is itself no better than being in lock-step with the bigots themselves.

I do not care if Barak Obama is electable based on his race or if Hillary Clinton is electable based on her sex. If we as progressives call for discouraging their candidacy simply because of the facts of their respective race and sex, then we are regressive, and not the progressives we claim to be. I call on my fellow progressives to disavow this kind of talk. How dare we call ourselves free thinkers and then turn on others who aren't in line with the status quo?

What a Cut-Up!

2008-01-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

Now here's a story you don't read every day:

Plea deal for body-snatch ring boss

BY WILLIAM SHERMANDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, January 16th 2008, 4:00 AM

The boss of a multimillion-dollar body-snatching ring will plead guilty to carving up hundreds of corpses at area funeral homes and illegally selling body parts, the Daily News has learned.

Michael Mastromarino - who earned millions of dollars through the ghoulish enterprise - agreed to the deal after lengthy negotiations with the Brooklyn district attorney's office. He will serve a minimum of 18 years in prison.

"He was facing life in prison," said Mastromarino's lawyer, Mario Gallucci, adding his jailed client will appear in court Tuesday to formalize the plea agreement.

As part of the deal, Mastromarino, 44, will cooperate with prosecutors in an ongoing probe of several companies that bought the stolen body parts and then sold them to more than 20,000 transplant recipients throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. The transplants included bones, skin, arterial valves, ligaments and tendons.

The illegal enterprise ran for more than four years, ending in fall 2005 when The News detailed the operation and an ongoing probe by the Brooklyn district attorney's office. More than 1,400 corpses were illegally harvested. (Read more here...)

How would you like to find out you had one of these parts in you?

Waking Virgilio Cintron

2008-01-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

If you liked Waking Ned Devine, you will love this story. All that's missing are the Irish accents and bonny green countryside.

Then I Can Die Happy

2008-01-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

I wrote briefly about this as a comment on a friend's blog tonight. I was going to leave it at that (it's late and I'm tired), but I was lying in bed and more about this was going through my mind.

Barak Obama has not been my favorite candidate. Truth be known, I have had no favorite other than the very dark horse of Dennis Kucinich. And I have liked Kucinich because of our common ground. He believes in the punative measures I believe in. Measures that I believe should be exacted against the criminals who have held our constitution hostage for seven years now. And I have written about those beliefs freely here. And argued them with friends and family.

And if pushed to it, I will argue no differently today.

But in just the past handful of days I have begun to think that my beliefs just may be superfluous after all.

This is what I wrote in comment earlier tonight:

"I found myself today thinking of Mikhail Gorbachev. As far as I am concerned this man was a true hero of the late 20th century (far more responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union than Ronald Reagan).One of his greatest facets was his determination to change his society for the better - even at his own expense. That takes a great person.

"I have felt similarly about Obama to what (others like myself have said). But I have come to realize in just the past few days that just maybe we're seeing something greater than any of us hard lefters had hoped for. Just maybe we're seeing the beginnings of a truly new emergence of freedom. And just maybe that new freedom has more to do with a message of hope than it has to do with a detailed reckoning of the evils of the NeoCons' crimes. And just maybe we're becoming the ones who are superfluous.

"I'm not sure. But one thing I am sure of: if that is what is happening, I damn sure want to have the good grace to let my mightily held indignations go by the wayside as I watch the new hope ride into town."

To expand on that, I don't think this has anywhere near as much to do with Barak Obama as it has to do with The People. Hillary is already acusing Obama of being full of empty rhetoric. The NeoCon death machine is already planning the implementation of a vicious attack on Obama. (Ironically, this attack is going to focus ten times more on his supposed Muslim roots than on the color of his skin. The insidious viciousness of this lies in the false choice it attempts to lay before Obama's defenders: Do you assert that he is indeed not a Muslim, or do you rise up and emphatically declare the truth and promise of our Constitution that mandates that there shall be no religious test for any person seeking public office in the United States?)

But do you see? I cannot help but continue to couch this in an "us against them" paradigm. And I am beginning to see that those who will truly manage to rise above this and usher in the new age that restores - and even better yet, realizes - the promise of our democracy, will not be those who have fought the old fight, on the old battleground that is steeped in the traditional enmities of that old struggle. No, the victors will in fact not be victors. They will be winners. Not victorious vanquishors of foes of old, but inheritors of the promises of liberty fought for by our founders.

General George Washington led men to victory against King George in 1783. But we claim July 4th, 1776 as the birth of our nation, when the pen declared us victorious. Rhetoric is not empty. Rhetoric inspires. An inspired people rises above conflicts and sets their sights on horizons they clearly see. And that inspiration provides the strength and courage to turn vision into heritage.

I will gladly become superfluous. I finally understand why Barak Obama has likened our current body politic to the struggle of the 60's. He hasn't demeaned the struggle thereof. But that struggle, which continues today, is a struggle not destined to resolve itself in identifying a victor in terms of the day, but rather in birthing a new people, free of those struggles.

The Travel Continuum

2008-01-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Bonnie and I love traveling and meeting new people. Our lives consist of three stages along the travel continuum: 1) Planning our next trip, 2) Taking a trip, and 3) Biding our time until we can forecast having enough time and money saved up so we can start planning our next trip.

The third stage is the most difficult. Planning a trip is almost as much fun as taking a trip, and it lasts longer and costs less, so it can bring a lot of wanderlust satisfaction. But that in-between stage, when we are in no position to do more than thumb through atlases and travel books and sigh wistfully, often seems interminable. We sometimes get the urge to go buy a new suitcase or travel gadget, just to feel some of the residual effects of the travel-related expenditure. We usually are able to resist these urges; I want a day pack that is designed to accommodate a laptop computer and I nearly purchased one a few months ago, but I wisely decided to wait until our next actual trip planning phase arrives.

Sometimes serendipity has its way of providing you with opportunity and delight you hadn't seen coming. In an effort to do something related to travel - something that cost nothing and that would have the only immediate benefit of its immediate engagement of my interest - I signed up with The Hospitality Club. The Hospitality Club is an online organization with thousands of members world wide. The mission of the club is very simple; members provide hospitality to, or are provided hospitality by, fellow members. I joined simply because Bonnie and I love to meet locals in the places we travel, and because one of the central precepts to this club is free accommodation.

I signed us up several months ago. It takes a few weeks after you sign up to become a member (there is some vetting process, presumably in an attempt to weed out the scammers and spammers). After becoming a member I filled out our profile. I provided information such as the fact that we own a cat, permitted smoking only outside, and preferred six week's notice in advance of requesting accommodation at our house. Of course I was really thinking of our accommodation at other member's homes, more than offering our home up, at the time.

And that's when serendipity hit. About a month ago we received a request from another member. She apologized for not providing 6 weeks' notice and then said she would be traveling from California, where she lived, through our area around New Year's, and could we accommodate them. I saw this email briefly as I was leaving work one day, and forgot all about it until about a week later. After quick discussion with Bonnie I responded to the request (the initial contacts, both ways, are facilitated by The Hospitality Club to retain your relative anonymity until you choose to contact each other directly). We sent emails back and forth. Their plans changed and gelled, and eventually five young people showed up on our doorstep this past Thursday evening.

And I have to tell you; they are some of the nicest young people I have ever met. They are all educated (one just passed his bar exams), well-spoken, progressive professionals. They were courteous and respectful; not just with us, but with each other as well. They invited us out to dinner last night and we all enjoyed the local cuisine and chatted about things important and trivial.

Two are teachers of developmentally challenged children, one is a worksite organizer for her local union. The guy who just passed the bar has aspirations of public defense. In other words, they are all very socially responsible young people. And that really gives me hope, because they are also all clearly highly intelligent and could easily make their way quickly up corporate ladders, but have instead chosen lives that enrich society.

We bade them goodbye early this morning. Each of them hugged us and asked us to please visit them when we were out their way. It was a wonderful, if short, experience and one we both want again.

So serendipitously, while setting ourselves up for future travel arrangements, we ran into a fourth stage of the travel continuum; hosting other travelers. We will do this again, and again. And you can be sure we will be every bit as courteous when we eventually visit the homes of fellow club members.

Iowa lot to Barak

2008-01-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

I'm still going to vote for Dennis Kucinich in our primary - provided he hasn't dropped out by this coming spring - because I made a promise. But I have to admit, I was really impressed with Barak Obama tonight.

Barak looked so wonderful coming up onto the stage with his wife and young daughters. I turned to Bonnie and commented that he would be the first President younger than we are. It just feels good to think of this young man, so full of hope and promise and with his young charges, as President. Like JFK two generations ago.

The primary season has barely begun. But I have new hope after tonight. Good luck Barak.

To Bury a Parent

2008-01-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

I don’t recall if I’ve written about this previously or not. I just reviewed my archive titles, and I don’t believe so.

A few months from now will be the thirty-first anniversary of my mother’s untimely death. I was twenty at the time. She was forty-three. A school bus rear ended her car and she burned to death. She had just dropped off one of my brothers at school. He was fifteen at the time, and the last person to see her alive.

At the time, it was decided that we would not have a traditional graveyard burial and memorial. I say “it was decided,” because I don’t remember being part of the discussion at the time. I don’t know if I would have agreed or not, but that’s neither here nor there.

She was cremated (obviously), and we planted her ashes under the roots of a sapling on a small pastoral piece of property my mother and father owned. They had planned on building a house on this land. My dad subsequently remarried less than a year after my mom’s death, and the land was sold. The rancher who purchased the land had a bull who destroyed the sapling; thus obliterating my mother’s “grave.”

Several years later my dad buried his second wife to breast cancer. This is a terrible thing to die from, but we celebrated as she was the quintessential evil stepmother. I only encountered her evil peripherally, but my younger siblings suffered under her. And my spineless father allowed it, and helped her coddle her own sons. So the celebration at her death was well deserved. I don’t remember where she was buried, and I don’t care.

My dad went on to wed again, and he showed equally, if not worse, judgment this time around. We were all grown and out from under parental thumbs by this time, but this woman ended up being a drug-addicted money pit. All of my dad’s current and future worth went into her money pit of a B&B, though he was not afforded any portion of ownership thereto. When my grandparents’ estate was eventually liquidated, that very considerable wealth was similarly subsumed. It went up her nose as had his career when he took the very public fall for her addiction – her career to protect.

He died a little over a year ago (three days before Thanksgiving, 2006), for all practical purposes, without a penny to his name. He was still married to the money pitted old tart. She was delighted to see him gone; he had dementia his last two years and that lessened the fun she had at his expense.

His children, my siblings and I, will be gathering in Hawaii this spring. Our mother was born and raised there, as were we all (except my older sister – born in Munich). Our father and mother met there somewhere on the order of fifty-five years ago. They met while working on a set for a college theater production. They made a very good looking couple. They have been apart nearly thirty years.

So we will meet this spring to reunite them. We have a smidgeon of his ashes; his drug-addled ex managed to scrape some off the kitchen counter before snorting them or mixing them in with the kitty litter. And my sister and brother rescued these dried old flakes of bone in a spice jar. These we will place in the ground not far from the town our mother was raised in. We will add mementos of her life.

Her parents, our grandparents, are buried there as well. It’s fitting. After thirty years of being blown to the wind and trampled underfoot by a bull, now long gone itself, our mother can rejoin our father. And perhaps (though I am not so romantic to really believe it so), she can redeem him at last.

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

I’m back at work today after eleven days off. My employer enforces a “use it or lose it” policy with regard to vacation time, and I had three days saved up. This past Monday was therefore a work day for me, and I dutifully showed up. The parking lot was almost empty as was the building in which I work. I spent about 3 and half hours processing the miniscule amount of work that had accumulated the week before, and then I went home.

But everybody but the chronically hung over is back at work today. The vase majority of the work I do is downstream of work submitted by others. Since these others have by and large all been off for the holidays too, I must now wait for them to all get back up to speed and begin submitting work to me again. Until that happens I am in a thumb twiddling mode. I check my email constantly to see if anything new has shown up. I have done some file maintenance this morning. I have been catching back up on personal emails as well. Right now I’m waiting for lunch time.

And I can’t leave early as I did on Monday because as I said, everybody is back in force. I am beginning to wish I had simply given things a cursory glance on Monday morning so I would have an additional 3 and a half hours of work to do today. Of course I would have finished that an hour ago and then taken another hour to do the work that has trickled in thus far today, and would still be sitting here writing blog entry now.

That isn’t to say that I won’t be interrupted and thrown into a tail-spin at a moment’s notice. In that case I may not even post this as it would no longer be apropos.

Guess it's apropos because I'm publishing it now. Happy New Year!

Is it Time for a Tea Party Yet?

2007-12-28T00:05:00.000-07:00

The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) was created into law in the late 60's to keep the wily tax-dodging rich from getting away without paying a dime. It was a good idea (although far too lenient).

But the AMT hasn't kept pace with inflation. Now middle and upper-middle income families are falling prey to this tax. Ok, let's not cry too loud. We're not talking about the poor. But this is on the heels of Bush's tax breaks for the rich, furthering the divide between the payers and the payers not.

Much ado is currently being made about how folks will need to be filing late becasue the IRS had to rewrite five forms related to the AMT. Why? Because Congress was trying to fix this tax. Now seriously, the tax needs more than the yearly patchwork to minimize its impact on the middle class. It needs a complete overhaul with its original intent reinstated. But at least Congress was trying.

The problem that faced Congress was the $50 billion shortfall that would result from the fix. And true to form, Bush growled and snarled and clashed his teeth when Congress mentioned raising taxes on the rich to make up the shortfall. So Congress caved and let the shortfall stand as a shortfall. Just more money to borrow from China.

Why do working class conservatives continue to believe this tyrant has their interests at heart. We are all (excepting you uber rich out there of course) being robbed blind. This is the biggest heist in American history and the law is just telling the gangsters to help themselves. And if they get bored not arresting the real criminals, they just round up patriotic citizens and arrest them instead.

Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men, #2

2007-12-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

Priests brawl at Jesus' birthplace

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) -- Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests attacked each other with brooms and stones inside the Church of the Nativity as long-standing rivalries erupted in violence during holiday cleaning on Thursday.

The basilica, built over the grotto in Bethlehem where Christians believe Jesus was born, is administered jointly by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities.
Any perceived encroachment on one group's turf can touch off vicious feuds.

On Thursday, dozens of priests and cleaners were scrubbing the church ahead of the Armenian and Orthodox Christmas, celebrated in early January. Thousands of tourists visited the church this week for Christmas celebrations.

But the clean-up turned ugly after some of the Orthodox faithful stepped inside the Armenian church's section, touching off a scuffle between about 50 Greek Orthodox and 30 Armenians.

Palestinian police, armed with batons and shields, quickly formed a human cordon to separate the two sides so the cleaning could continue, then ordered an Associated Press photographer out of the church.

Four people, some with blood running from their faces, were slightly wounded.

Goodbye Benazir

2007-12-27T19:42:00.000-07:00

I'll readily admit that I don't know much about Benazir Bhutto. Until this past October when she returned to Pakistan out of exile (a self-imposed exile to escape corruption charges), I think I had heard her name, but nothing more. Or perhaps I only think I found her name familiar as it has become familiar since. It's all together possible I didn't even know of her at all until two and a half months ago.

But she seemed to embody something that was about the people instead of being about power and wealth. And maybe this also was spun out of whole cloth. And maybe not.

Ms. Bhutto defied a power-hungry friend of George Bush who, also like King George some fear, opposed free elections and fancied dictatorship as his due. She returned to Pakistan in hopes of building a coalition government with Musharraf. Instead he declared her an outlaw. He fired the Pakistani Supreme Court and declared marshal law. And now he takes no blame for her assassination.

George Bush sits and points his finger at "international terrorism." He probably ordered her death at Musharraf's behest.

I didn't know even a smidgeon of what could have been know about this probably very brave woman. But I find myself deeply saddened and disturbed at what was done to her today in a land that we call an ally.

Hello Big Brother

2007-12-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics
$1 Billion Project to Include Images of Irises and Faces

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 22, 2007; Page A01

CLARKSBURG, W. Va. -- The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.

Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law.

"Bigger. Faster. Better. That's the bottom line," said Thomas E. Bush III, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, which operates the database from its headquarters in the Appalachian foothills.

Read More ...

Peace on Earth, Good Will toward those who can afford it

2007-12-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

I go back and forth with regard to my feelings regarding the criminality of the Bush Administration and what we the people should do about it. Sometimes I want to rant and rave with my utter frustration (and sometimes I do). Sometimes I want to merely despair and leave this country forever. Sometimes I want to take up arms (I do not own guns, and I am wont to interpret the 2nd Amendment as being about a well-ordered Militia, not about gun ownership).

Sometimes I listen to reason. I hear my brother who believes stability is paramount, not patriotism; not our Constitution. I hear seasoned scholarly activists cautioning us not to be too hasty; not to despair; not to consider this our worst hour. I hear my daughter speak of her ideology (which is more or less in alignment with mine), but I also hear her speak of friends antithetical to that ideology, as it that makes perfect sense.

I am truly torn. One part of me remembers the sage Taoist advice, "this too shall pass." Another side reminds me that our founders quelled such rhetoric as a form of giving succor to the Tories. And I don't know what to think.

The company I now work for employs the marvelous services of Cigna Insurance. Now I know these bastards are not the only ones who routinely allow, and even encourage, teenage kids to die in the interest of feathering their stockholders' nests, but I'm picking on them because this latest story comes close to home for me since these bastards could do it to me and the ones I most love too now. What enrages me is the complicity of our government in this obscenely evil corporate greed.

So do we seek the forcible overthrow of these criminals? Do we continue to hope our elected officials grow a pair and in turn use constitutional means to oust and incarcerate the defilers of our democracy? Do we take to the streets and hope the corporate media airs a second or two of our ire before doing a fade to a Wal-Mart ad? Do we try to work from within; do we give the benefit of the doubt to the spineless, co-opted politicians who sit figuratively opposite our opponents in Congress?

I am too angry to make a rational argument for constrained compromise; for patience; for belief in the sure and certain inner workings of a democratic framework. Our world's history is too replete with stories of corruption, and too impoverished in stories of the success of liberty, for me to place much hope in the inevitability of the triumph of the democratic system. Another Boston Tea Party seems to me to be the only course. Destruction to the traitors to our liberty!

Or is it just Merry Christmas?

It's snowing outside as I write this. Falling snow has a way of bringing serenity to dark moods. I'll try to find that serenity. But there should be no Merry Christmas for Bush and Cheney. They need to rot in the polluted coal and oil that has ever been the only lining to their stockings. I won't say more because these traitors have usurped our land and redefined treason. One day though...

Wrong Test

2007-12-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

AP story reads "Obama Describes Faith Amid False Rumors." It goes on to tell of how Barack Obama dispelled rumors that he is "Muslim and poses a threat to the security of the United States."

I'm not necessarily an Obama supporter. Nor am I a Clinton or Dodd or Biden supporter (I do lean a little friendly toward Kucinich and Edwards, but that is neither here nor there). But this really pisses me off.

Just about the very last line of the pre-amendment US Constitution says that "there shall be no religious test" for public office. That is fundamental folks. This constant barrage of religious bullshit is getting on my nerves. And to be honest, if should be making all of us extremely uneasy.

No religious test means precisely that. Religion is not, cannot be, must never be, a criterion for electing our representatives or leaders. The very fact that Barack felt it necessary to repudiate the rumors of Islam as his faith of choice is way beyond disconcerting. We should be up in arms as a people decrying both the people who are creating such false issues, and the politicians who stoop to denying the "charges," whether or not they have any merit.

Personally I would love to see a candidate who comes out as a flaming gay, atheist, mixed-heritage, professional wrestling fan. Or any other group of things that bear not a whit on her or his credentials. This current trend in American politics is not just stupid (although it is very stupid); it is un-American, it is dangerous, it is unconstitutional.

I will not place my vote based on such false attributes. And while I really could relate very strongly to an Atheist candidate, I would not ever vote for one based on that conviction. I would do so only at the expense of our democracy.

What comes around...

2007-12-14T23:24:00.000-07:00

Call me an idiot, but wasn't it the Emergency over California's Budget that Arnie used to launch his bid to overthrow Gray Davis a few years back? If Davis was fiscally irresponsible then, and therefore subject to recall, why isn't the Governator now?

Bumper Crop

2007-12-08T17:52:00.000-07:00

Bonnie and I saw a bumper sticker today that made us laugh, so I went searching for it on "the internets." Here's the sticker:

Of course I found the sticker. Stamp and Shout dot Com has a bunch of good stickers. Here a a few that made me chuckle:

Of course to be fair, and one should be, Ann Coulter is not the Chancelor of our country. Do you think maybe she wants to be?

Birthday

2007-12-01T04:31:00.000-07:00

Today is my older sister’s birthday. She turns 52. I need to remember to send her a greeting. I’ll email it; we’ve all pretty much settled down to the ultra-last-minute email for birthday greetings in my family these days.

And really, who wants birthday cards hanging around? If you’re anything like me, you read them (when they arrive at all) with a swift mental “thanks for remembering;” you note to yourself that the card’s canned joke (or worse, “sentiment”) is either Dixie®-Cup camp or saccharine. If it’s from older generation family you shake it open upon first inspection, and look for any cash that might fall out. You toss the card on your current pile of things you know you should file or read or give money for, or something. The card gets buried a few levels down and you notice it one day, re-read it and smile. And then you toss it in the trash.

Emails are much more efficient and don’t add to land fills (I’m sure moldering birthday cards must account for something on the order of 0.002 percent of the annual American refuse output). I’m doing my small part. Each card not sent, may add one one-hundredth of a second to humankind’s longevity.

Or some such.

But there are cards worth getting. I have one on the fridge that my aunt sent years ago. It shows a ponderous, but none too bright, cowboy on horseback with the sky as backdrop. He’s saying to himself (and to the sky), “But what if everybody does Wang Chung tonight? Who’s gonna look after the herd then?” On the back of the card my aunt wrote, “What in the world is Wang Chung?”

And there’s a card Bonnie got from her sister several years back. I’ve seen it on her dresser ever since. It’s of a young girl, maybe seven, with red shorts, sitting on steps of a house. It makes me think of how Bonnie would have looked at that age. I think it does for her as well, and I think that’s why she keeps it; her sister connected with her when she gave her that card.

And these cards, now that I think of it, are the exceptions that prove the rule. They will forever be enshrined, on a refrigerator, on a dresser top, or even in a drawer. They will find their way to a landfill only once mankind has learned balance. One hopes.

Happy Birthday, Mary.

The Princess

2007-11-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there lived a king. The king had a beautiful daughter, the PRINCESS.

But there was a problem. Everything the princess touched would melt.

No matter what; metal, wood, stone, anything she touched would melt.

Because of this, men were afraid of her. Nobody would dare marry her. The king despaired. What could he do to help his daughter?

He consulted his wizards and magicians. One wizard told the king, "If your daughter touches one thing that does not melt in her hands, she will be cured." The king was overjoyed and came up with a plan.

The next day, he held a competition. Any man that could bring his daughter an object that would not melt would marry her and inherit the king's wealth.

THREE YOUNG PRINCES TOOK UP THE CHALLENGE.

The first brought a sword of the finest steel. But alas, when the princess touched it, it melted. The prince went away sadly.

The second prince brought diamonds. He thought diamonds are the hardest substance in the world and would not melt. But alas, once the princess touched them, they melted. He too was sent away disappointed.

The third prince approached. He told the princess, "Put your hand in my pocket and feel what is in there." The princess did as she was told, though she turned red. She felt something hard. She held it in her hand.

And it did not melt!!!

The king was overjoyed. Everybody in the kingdom was overjoyed! And the third prince married the princess and they both lived happily ever after.

Question: What was in the prince's pants?

M&M's of course.

They melt in your mouth, not in your hand.

What were you thinking??

The Corpses are Dying

2007-11-20T12:38:00.000-07:00

Since the spring of 2005 I have contributed to An Exquisite Corpse, a website for collaborative art. This has been a wonderful community to belong to with its marvelous, and sometimes stunning, art, and endless discussion, artistic and otherwise.

Phineas, the site owner and moderator, announced yesterday that the site will be finis following the last posting (there are seventeen remaining "corpses" in the pipeline). He promises to keep the site available as an archive. I am glad for that at least.

To date I have contributed to 42 corpses (the name for the collaborative art pieces). I've been pretty proud of some, and much less so of others. I guess I can at least say that I have been ashamed of none. And it has been a real honor to work with so many other talented artists. I am going to miss this community. A lot.

There's already some talk amongst us of trying something new. I hope we do. I'll do my part to help make it happen. But it will be very difficult to match the spirit that has made An Exquisite Corpse so successful. Please check it out.

Thank you Phineas for everything.

Liberal Consensus

2007-11-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

As recently as a year ago if I discussed politics with other liberals, Democrats, progressives, left-wingers, pinkos, or the like, I would most likely find little to disagree with. Sure we'd quibble over the actual meanings of the labels we use for ourselves or that others call us; I'm progressive, not a liberal because of the negative connotation, etc. But we'd all agree that Bush is evil, Cheney is Satan incarnate, Iraq is an unmitigated disaster, the US Constitution deserves better protection, surveillance of Americans without warrants is illegal, suppression of the black vote is a tactic of the true evil empire: the Bushies, and so on.

Now that the light at the end of this administration's dark tunnel is in full view though, I find myself arguing with those with whom I am most politically aligned. I for instance believe impeachment is the honor-bound duty of the Congress of the United States. And since Nancy Pelosi had the gal to "take it off the table" without the American people's consent, I think she should be one of those impeached. Cheney and Bush are traitors and should be tried as such. Nancy is obstructing justice and so should be tried in a like manner.

But that's my point of view and while I know it's held by many, there are also many, who would consider themselves well left of center, who would adamantly disagree. My brother visiting for the holidays is one such. Here I was secretly happy we had ended up with only the liberal element of my family over for the festivities, when I found myself in a very heated debate over that precise issue. And other issues grew out of it as well. War funding for instance: I believe Congress should simply cut it off. Period. My brother thinks that would be abandoning the troops. He calls me naive. I have heard his point of view (Congress itself keeps spouting it in defense of their inaction) and it's enticing. Any time you can say "here's the problem with that solution," you’re looking to get a free pass. But I think you need to offer up a solution before shooting down another.

Liberals are often accused of just complaining about the problems and not doing anything about them. In other words, we are accused of being negative. But within our own ranks, if some of us posit solutions - and I won't deny that those I suggest are drastic - we're often accused of being too, well, drastic. But those who say that generally don't have any suggestions themselves. They just argue why the proposed solution will not work. And truly I'm not trying to argue that all the kinks have been worked out of my solutions. But debate and consensus has its hallmark of greatness in its ability to achieve synthesis. You can't achieve that goal by dismissing extreme solutions out of hand. Extreme solutions are usually proffered only after it has become clear that a) the danger inherent in following the status quo is itself extreme, and b) that something has to be done and that current approaches are tantamount to doing absolutely nothing.

We lefties have trouble achieving consensus. A large part of that is inherent to our cerebral wiring. We are generally critical thinkers who understand not only the value, but also the necessity, of free thought. It's very difficult to broker single-visioned compromise under those circumstances.

The problem with that is that the Right enforces unity of vision very well. Admittedly that becomes less obvious during the primary season. And Republican candidates must spend copious energy distancing themselves from this administration while also doing the opposite (to appease both the centrists and the hard right – or as I like to call them: the righty-uptighties). But all you need to do is to listen to the right-wing punditry (something I try to avoid) to hear that day’s talking points faithfully regurgitated. These guys know how to present a united front.

So while it’s long been the hallmark of the enlightened left to be in discord due to our superior critical thinking abilities, I call complete bullshit on the notion that we cannot be united. The difference is that we need not to unite ourselves under the banner of a strong man, but rather to unite ourselves via the mechanism of debate and consensus. It’s a great tool that can be used very effectively by clear-thinking people and it’s time we do so. If impeachment is too drastic (it’s not, but I’m allowing for debate), then let’s discuss what will work. Let’s come up with a plan. You don’t need to strong-arm the solution; you just need to come to the table believing that consensus is mandatory.

Chocolate

2007-11-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I guess I liked sweets as much as any other kid. If something tasted nice with a sprinkle of sugar, how about three tablespoons? Up until maybe 5 or 6 years ago I continued to put sugar on my cereal. And I still put brown, or even better raw, sugar on my oatmeal. But other than natural sugar in fruit or the rare bowl of icecream, I can pretty much take or leave sweets. In fact if someone eliminated all access to sweetness tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a tear.

Except for chocolate. I only eat chocolate rarely. But not because I could take it or leave it. On the contrary, I could just take it and take it. And it really needn't be particularly sweet. I love bitter chocolate. And I used to nibble on unsweetened bakers' chocolate as a kid.

So I read this evening that chocolate is 3000 years old. 500 years older than previously thought. And it all started with making beer in Honduras. I found this quite interesting.

And did I tell you I like beer too?

Just Stuff

2007-11-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

I think I have blogger's block. I feel an obligation to write something here. Anything. But I have no idea what to write about. So I figured if I sat down and just started writing, something would come to me and we'd be off to the races.

Still nothing.

China rescinded the exportation license for the manufacturer that was making those whatchumacallit dots that administered the date rape drug to kids. Interesting: They can't export the dots. But they presumably can still manufacture them. For Chinese kids, you think?

We have family coming for Thanksgiving and so we're spending this weekend cleaning up and organizing. Or at least Bonnie is. I'm sitting here typing. As soon as I'm done I'll shower and help with the cleaning. That is, unless I can come up with another diversion.

The fall is beautiful this year. The weather started cooling in September but has not become really cold yet so the colors are hanging in there for a long time. I took this photo a couple of weekends ago (same weekend Bonnie and I built our front steps). This is the southwest corner of our back yard, in what we refer to as Bonnie's Sanctuary. It's very pretty isn't it?

I got my computer back from the shop on Thursday. It blue-screened again Friday night. I don't know why, but I'm waiting to see if it blue-screens even one more time. If it does I'm going to demand my money back (wish me luck). But I hope it blue-screened due to a random high-energy photon from outer space or something. I really like this machine - when it's not in crash mode.

I'm getting hungry and I refuse to eat before I shower so I guess this is it. I hate cleaning. Oh that's right; I just remembered one of the things I need to clean is the garage. Hooray! I love spending quality time in the garage. I can stretch that out for a long time.

Happy Sunday.

Red Nose

2007-11-08T17:40:00.001-07:00

Ever notice how the press keeps saying "In a surprise move, Pat Robertson backs Rudolph Giuliani?" Surprise my ass.

Get a clue you right-wing religious nuts: this was never, will never be, could never be, is laughingly not, about religion!

Pat Robertson is a billionaire. Or did you know that? He has helped foster child labor. Also true.

Pat Robertson is not endorsing Giuliani because Rudolph plays in any Evangelical games. He is endorsing him because of MONEY.

I really pity those of you who love the right because of your Christian religion. You've been had.

A Life without Left Turns

2007-11-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

This story makes me smile.

By Michael Gartner

My father never drove a car.

Well, that's not quite right.

I should say I never saw him drive a car. He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926 Whippet.

"In those days," he told me when he was in his 90s, "to drive a car you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet, and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it."

At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in:

"Oh, bull——!" she said. "He hit a horse."

"Well," my father said, "there was that, too."

Continued here...

Game for Anything

2007-11-07T09:02:00.000-07:00

What will those crafty Chinese think of next? I know aphrodisiacs are as common a feature in Chinese pharmacology as aspirin is in the West. But this really takes the cake:

A favorite of Australian children, the Bindeez game is a Chinese export. Apparently the game includes tiny beads. Normally this would merit a ban for small children on its own. I guess Australian kids don’t choke as readily as American kids do. Nonetheless they do seem to need a little coercion on a date.

The beads turn out to have been coated with a date rape drug. No, this is not a joke. The Australian authorities have responded appropriately, banning the game. Read more here.

But this begs some questions. Are the Chinese secretly planning on invading Australia and dating their children? What is up with that? Are the toxins in the Chinese environment beginning to damage the chromosomes of Chinese women? And are Australian women just too large for diminutive Chinese men? This could explain the use of the drug in children’s toys.
Or they may simply have run low on plastic resin and, under pressure to meet a shipping deadline, they innocently added a little date rape resin they just happened to have sitting around in a barrel. Nothing nefarious in that.

The Producers

2007-11-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

Somebody please explain to me how the Congress works. I learned all about "how a bill becomes a law" when I was a kid. But seriously, what fuels the process?

Those of us with a brain, er, I mean those of us who lean to the left of Hitler just can't understand for the life of us what the hell happened to the Democrats in the House and in the Senate. I myself have suggested that maybe Bush kidnapped our elected officials' loved ones and is holding said people, plus our representatives' gonads, hostage in some secret prison (for his maniacal amusement I'm sure).

All jokes aside though, what the fuck are these nut-cases all about?

Kucinich is probably the last truly honest politician in Washington (and you Ron Paul supporters can just stuff it). He forces the impeachment of Cheney to the floor of the House today to the immediate response of the majority's axe. Only to be resurrected by the Republicans. What the fu*? Huh?

What am I missing? And before you go raising your hand shouting "I know, I know," yes I have heard several supposedly plausible ploys of the Repugnants and of the Scardycrats. I just don't believe any of them because they all sound to friggin' contrived.

Every one of these wicked whackos in Washington is sold out to such a great degree that all that is left is the choreography of each individual to fulfill the greater purpose of the whole. What happened today? Who knows? I know who knows; the corporate interests that are acting in the role of executive producer to the George and Nancy show. But why direct their actors to play the very uncharacteristic roles played out today? Again, I have no idea. But they do know. And it's all very choreographed.

I guess this is a plea for publicly financed elections as much as it is anything else. Our "representatives" are as meaningless as fangs on a marshmallow otherwise.

Dress Rehersal?

2007-11-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

The news abounds with stories of Musharraf's declaration of "Emergency Rule" and the United States' condemnation of same.

Right...

Let's see: Musharraf is condemning dissent as anti-democratic. He has accused the judges of the Pakistani Supreme Court of being activist. He says he has no choice; terrorists have attacked his initiative for democracy. And so he must crack down.

Boy, thank god nothing like that could occur in the United States.

It occurs to me that people create democracy, not governments. And when your democracy is in trouble, the last place to look for repair of the breach is from your government, because only governments can attack democracy. Get it Bush? Terrorists cannot attack democracy. By definition you traitor.

Costume Party

2007-10-30T12:27:00.000-06:00

A couple was invited to a swanky costume Party. She got a terrible headache and told her husband to go to the party alone. He being a devoted husband protested, but she argued and said she was going to take some aspirin and go to bed, and there was no need of his good time being spoiled by not going.

So he took his costume and away he went. The wife, after sleeping soundly for about an hour, awakened without pain and, as it was still early, decided to go the party.

Since her husband did not know what her costume was, she thought she would have some fun by watching her husband to see how he acted when she was not with him.

She joined the party and soon spotted her husband cavorting around on the dance floor, dancing with every nice chick he could, and copping a little feel here and a little kiss there. His wife sidled up to him and being a rather seductive babe herself, he left his current partner high and dry and devoted his time to the new babe that had just arrived. She let him go as far as he wished , naturally, since he was her husband.

Finally, he whispered a little proposition in her ear and she agreed, so off they went to one of the cars and had a little bang. Just before unmasking at midnight, she slipped away, went home, put the costume away and got into bed, wondering what kind of explanation he would make for his behavior.

She was sitting up reading when he came in, and she asked what kind of a time he had. He said: "Oh, the same old thing. You know I never have a good time when you're not there."

"Did you dance much?"

"I'll tell you, I never even danced one dance. When I got there, I met Pete, Bill Brown and some other guys, so we went into the den and played poker all evening. But you're not going to believe what happened to the guy I loaned my costume to......."

Help Make this a Reality

2007-10-28T21:18:00.000-06:00

I wanted to send this to MoveOn.org but I can find any way to contact them (let me know if you have an email address or link please).

Here's what I would like to pitch: Billboards placed in large metropolitan areas (and anywhere else money allows) with gigantic close-ups of Bush and Cheney in jail, hands grasping the bars. Caption reading "Help make this a reality. Tell your congressperson to vote for impeachment."

Why? Because the vast majority of the public - even those against this war (and the next war too) get all the news they see from the mainstream media. They have no idea how rotten our government really is, or how close we have come to the complete ruination of all our founders really fought for. Put it out there on the freeway where they can't avoid it. Make the pictures big and plain and very obvious. And have everybody start envisioning Bush and Cheney behind bars whether they like them or not.

If this actually led to impeachment it would be nothing short of wonderful. But even if it just led to a greater awareness by everybody, that would itself be fantastic. You know without question that the right would be up in arms. Good. Even better, the local news would be all over this because of the outrage from the local right wing crackpots.

MoveOn would get the right's panties in a worse snit than when they called Petraeus a betrayer. This could really be big. And by the way, in case MoveOn really does get to read this: thank you MoveOn for not caving on your Petraeus ad. Thank you from all of us true patriots.