On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq. Since then, hostilities and death tolls continue to rise. Tensions between the once dominant Sunni minority and Shia majority also continue to escalate--From the CRS Report For Congress: Iraq Milestones Since The Ouster Of Saddam Hussein, updated June 19, 2007.
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves--Edward R Murrow
AOL sucks

Cost of the war

Cost of the War in Iraq
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Just Foreign Policy Iraqi Death Estimator
ROVE HAS LEFT THE BUILDING
GONZALES HAS LEFT THE BUILDING
BLACKWATER WAS TOLD TO LEAVE THE BUILDING BUT PROBABLY WON'T

Categories

05/13/2008

Note to self...

 Reflections on parenting,
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Aren't we confronted by it at every turn, the reticence to speak our mind, knowing that feelings and relationships hang in the balance? And once the dark science of navigating a path of expression is enacted, the last stop sign abruptly appears: Keep your mouth shut, you are just as guilty.
>
So, we tolerate less than favorable behavior, whether from our spouses, our adult children, or our peers, knowing that they exacerbate bad situations while we stand mute. Of course most people have a tipping point at which time they, we, may also exacerbate a bad situation by broaching the taboo of prescribing behavior.
>
As humans, as our contact amongst others increases into ever widening circles, our control within those circles decreases, and so it should. There are those that do not respect these limits and we avoid them as surely as an acid bath. They are a curious breed and contain within their meddling certainty the capacity for much good and much evil. To find someone honest and wise and not driven by self interest is so rare, we barely give it a thought.
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But, egos being what they are, only allow the negatives to seep through while the intentions, no matter how true or instructive, are regarded as insolent intrusion.
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History and personal history both show that people will unknowingly, accept the consequences of a bad choice rather than heed a better one because consequences, albeit, perceived ones, are the very things that were first sought to be avoided, i.e.; I didn't want to raise an argumentative, difficult child but I did because I was argumentative and difficult in the raising of him.
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All this beating around the bush misses the point, I am upset with my daughter's child rearing skills. I was not a model father but I can't remember endlessly harping and carping over every minor infraction or act of defiance.
> 
The long view is not something that comes easily or naturally and is best acquired through example. Perhaps I didn't provide it, perhaps that is another part of the parent's burden; to see the truth, but too late, after our best opportunities have wilted and the fruit of our wisdom lies rotted on the vine.   Gene

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05/12/2008

O'Reilly pops his cork

Vintage O'Reilly,

Although this clip was posted on the basest of all media, AOL, it's still worth a look-see. He blows up good!

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Impressions of the past, present and future

Swirling and clamoring, standing on the bow, 
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Tornados, Myanmar, death, wars, attacks, threats. McCain slays Able, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The Pittsburgh Penguins. Cancer, MS, rare diseases. Billy Mays announces a revolutionary, new cleaning product.
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Jesus? Superman? UFO's? The truth, run through the mill, trimmed and planed for uniformity and texture. Someone quits, someone keeps going, the trajectory of unavoidable tragedy, skating to the finish line.
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No Mastodons, no Gods to implore. The hunt, fertility, the weather, the battle. No warriors in the coliseum to teach us, how to die, why to live.
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Cosmic background noise, the big bang, a billion ancient scholars debating the Buddhist truth, our dreams, thoughts and feelings, the illusion of being an individual, the journey back, the mortification of the flesh, the triumph of the spirit.
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Life; ephemeral and gory, cheap magic trick vs unfathomable mystery, reveal yourself!  Gene

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05/10/2008

Life is a carnival

The Band - life is a carnival.mp3 

I'm happy to report that there aren't any polyps or other strange biological anomilies taking up residence in my colon. But, they didn't knock me out as they have done in the past. It wasn't pleasant, sort of like something inside trying to claw its way out. 

Having your colon certified is a two edged sword, certainly it's good news but is a greasy burgher an appropriate way to celebrate? Shouldn't I take extra care to keep it tip top? Or is it like a car, once that first bump appears, screw it? I don't know, I just don't know. So the worm tube that runs through me is ok. it digests and fights off any thing that shouldn't be there. One system down, zillions to go.

Aren't we all in the same boat with *William Bendix and some crazy Nazi U-boat captain trying to convince us that our last name is Schmit and not Smith? Well, maybe not.    Gene
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A group of American and British citizens are stuck in a lifeboat after their ship and a U-boat sink each other in combat. Willi (Walter Slezak), a German survivor, is allowed aboard (after some debate), but is later revealed to be the ruthless Nazi U-boat captain.

Kovac (John Hodiak) takes charge, rationing the little food and water they have, but as time goes on, Willi gradually takes control away from him. One morning, while the others are sleeping, the injured German-American Gus Smith (William Bendix) catches Willi drinking from a hidden water supply. Too weak to wake anybody up, Gus is pushed overboard to drown. However, when they notice that the Nazi is sweating, the other passengers realize that he must have been hoarding water, so they beat him up and throw him out of the boat...

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05/09/2008

On being anal

Doctor, is that a colonoscope in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? 

One of my liver doctors recommended that I have a colonoscopy, due to either:

a. unexplained changes in my potty habits or,

b. he likes to do colonoscopies.

I've had one before. The procedure itself is a piece of cake, probably chocolate, mainly because they knock you out cold. I was just knocked out cold earlier this week when I had my second carpal tunnel surgery, I'm growing rather fond of it.

Every silver lining has a cloud somewhere attached and this one is no exception. The digestive tract must be squeaky clean before the doctor goes where few have gone before and this requires extreme measures. For those who have never had one; I'm not trying to discourage you from having one, if you're over 40, blah, blah, blah. But prepare yourself for a most unpleasant night, the night before.

The first time I had to drink a gallon of Golytely/nulyely/peg-lavage solution, known throughout the shitting world as "Go-lightly," I thought it an impossible task. I was almost right. I ask myself had I ever drank a gallon of anything over a 2 hour period before? The intuitive answer is "Of course not, that would be insane," until I remembered beer. Oh, yes, beer is consumed in a large quantities over a short period of time by many people in many lands, usually at sporting events, or when the drinking of the beer is considered, in, of itself, a sport. I had achieved at least Olympic silver in my long career as a hops and barley aficionado.

The 5 hour squirt marathon is over and I am finally ready to meet man, machine, nurse and anesthetist.  Lights, camera, action, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close up!    Gene 

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05/08/2008

Hey Joe Sixpack, listen up!

Fox News struggles mightily with class distinction but can't hide its snide condescension,



Brit Hume awkwardly tries to back pedal,

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05/07/2008

Bitter reminiscences

Bill sends us a reminder of how well we were served by the American media during the early part of our Iraq invasion. From 'The Final Word Is Hooray!':

 Remembering the Iraq War's Pollyanna pundits

3/15/06

Weeks after the invasion of Iraq began, Fox News Channel host Brit Hume delivered a scathing speech critiquing the media's supposedly pessimistic assessment of the Iraq War.

"The majority of the American media who were in a position to comment upon the progress of the war in the early going, and even after that, got it wrong," Hume complained in the April 2003 speech (Richmond Times Dispatch, 4/25/04). "They didn't get it just a little wrong. They got it completely wrong."

Hume was perhaps correct--but almost entirely in the opposite sense. Days or weeks into the war, commentators and reporters made premature declarations of victory, offered predictions about lasting political effects and called on the critics of the war to apologize. Three years later, the Iraq War grinds on at the cost of at least tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.

Around the same time as Hume's speech, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas declared (4/16/03): "All of the printed and voiced prophecies should be saved in an archive. When these false prophets again appear, they can be reminded of the error of their previous ways and at least be offered an opportunity to recant and repent. Otherwise, they will return to us in another situation where their expertise will be acknowledged, or taken for granted, but their credibility will be lacking."

Gathered here are some of the most notable media comments from the early days of the Iraq War.


Declaring Victory

"Iraq Is All but Won; Now What?"
(Los Angeles Times headline, 4/10/03)


"Now that the combat phase of the war in Iraq is officially over, what begins is a debate throughout the entire U.S. government over America's unrivaled power and how best to use it."
(CBS reporter Joie Chen, 5/4/03)


"Congress returns to Washington this week to a world very different from the one members left two weeks ago. The war in Iraq is essentially over and domestic issues are regaining attention."
(NPR's Bob Edwards, 4/28/03)


"Tommy Franks and the coalition forces have demonstrated the old axiom that boldness on the battlefield produces swift and relatively bloodless victory. The three-week swing through Iraq has utterly shattered skeptics' complaints."
(Fox News Channel's Tony Snow, 4/13/03)


"The only people who think this wasn't a victory are Upper Westside liberals, and a few people here in Washington."
(Charles Krauthammer, Inside Washington, WUSA-TV, 4/19/03)


"We had controversial wars that divided the country. This war united the country and brought the military back."
(Newsweek's Howard Fineman--MSNBC, 5/7/03)


"We're all neo-cons now."
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, 4/9/03)


"The war was the hard part. The hard part was putting together a coalition, getting 300,000 troops over there and all their equipment and winning. And it gets easier. I mean, setting up a democracy is hard, but it is not as hard as winning a war."
(Fox News Channel's Fred Barnes, 4/10/03)


"Oh, it was breathtaking. I mean I was almost starting to think that we had become inured to everything that we'd seen of this war over the past three weeks; all this sort of saturation. And finally, when we saw that it was such a just true, genuine expression. It was reminiscent, I think, of the fall of the Berlin Wall. And just sort of that pure emotional expression, not choreographed, not stage-managed, the way so many things these days seem to be. Really breathtaking."
(Washington Post reporter Ceci Connolly, appearing on Fox News Channel on 4/9/03, discussing the pulling down of a Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad, an event later revealed to have been a U.S. military PSYOPS operation--Los Angeles Times, 7/3/04)


Mission Accomplished?

"The war winds down, politics heats up.... Picture perfect. Part Spider-Man, part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan. The president seizes the moment on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific."
(PBS's Gwen Ifill, 5/2/03, on George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech)


"We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple. We're not like the Brits."
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, 5/1/03)


"He looked like an alternatively commander in chief, rock star, movie star, and one of the guys."
(CNN's Lou Dobbs, on Bush's 'Mission Accomplished' speech, 5/1/03)


Neutralizing the Opposition

"Why don't the damn Democrats give the president his day? He won today. He did well today."
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, 4/9/03)


"What's he going to talk about a year from now, the fact that the war went too well and it's over? I mean, don't these things sort of lose their--Isn't there a fresh date on some of these debate points?"
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, speaking about Howard Dean--4/9/03)


"If image is everything, how can the Democratic presidential hopefuls compete with a president fresh from a war victory?"
(CNN's Judy Woodruff, 5/5/03)


"It is amazing how thorough the victory in Iraq really was in the broadest context..... And the silence, I think, is that it's clear that nobody can do anything about it. There isn't anybody who can stop him. The Democrats can't oppose--cannot oppose him politically."
(Washington Post reporter Jeff Birnbaum-- Fox News Channel, 5/2/03)


Nagging the "Naysayers"

"Now that the war in Iraq is all but over, should the people in Hollywood who opposed the president admit they were wrong?"
(Fox News Channel's Alan Colmes, 4/25/03)


"I doubt that the journalists at the New York Times and NPR or at ABC or at CNN are going to ever admit just how wrong their negative pronouncements were over the past four weeks."
(MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, 4/9/03)


"I'm waiting to hear the words 'I was wrong' from some of the world's most elite journalists, politicians and Hollywood types.... I just wonder, who's going to be the first elitist to show the character to say: 'Hey, America, guess what? I was wrong'? Maybe the White House will get an apology, first, from the New York Times' Maureen Dowd. Now, Ms. Dowd mocked the morality of this war....

"Do you all remember Scott Ritter, you know, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector who played chief stooge for Saddam Hussein? Well, Mr. Ritter actually told a French radio network that -- quote, 'The United States is going to leave Baghdad with its tail between its legs, defeated.' Sorry, Scott. I think you've been chasing the wrong tail, again.

"Maybe disgraced commentators and politicians alike, like Daschle, Jimmy Carter, Dennis Kucinich, and all those others, will step forward tonight and show the content of their character by simply admitting what we know already: that their wartime predictions were arrogant, they were misguided and they were dead wrong. Maybe, just maybe, these self-anointed critics will learn from their mistakes. But I doubt it. After all, we don't call them 'elitists' for nothing."
(MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, 4/10/03)


"Over the next couple of weeks when we find the chemical weapons this guy was amassing, the fact that this war was attacked by the left and so the right was so vindicated, I think, really means that the left is going to have to hang its head for three or four more years."
(Fox News Channel's Dick Morris, 4/9/03)


"This has been a tough war for commentators on the American left. To hope for defeat meant cheering for Saddam Hussein. To hope for victory meant cheering for President Bush. The toppling of Mr. Hussein, or at least a statue of him, has made their arguments even harder to defend. Liberal writers for ideologically driven magazines like The Nation and for less overtly political ones like The New Yorker did not predict a defeat, but the terrible consequences many warned of have not happened. Now liberal commentators must address the victory at hand and confront an ascendant conservative juggernaut that asserts United States might can set the world right."
(New York Times reporter David Carr, 4/16/03)


"Well, the hot story of the week is victory.... The Tommy Franks-Don Rumsfeld battle plan, war plan, worked brilliantly, a three-week war with mercifully few American deaths or Iraqi civilian deaths.... There is a lot of work yet to do, but all the naysayers have been humiliated so far.... The final word on this is, hooray."
(Fox News Channel's Morton Kondracke, 4/12/03)

"Some journalists, in my judgment, just can't stand success, especially a few liberal columnists and newspapers and a few Arab reporters."
(CNN's Lou Dobbs, 4/14/03)

"Sean Penn is at it again. The Hollywood star takes out a full-page ad out in the New York Times bashing George Bush. Apparently he still hasn't figured out we won the war."
(MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, 5/30/03)


Cakewalk?

"This will be no war -- there will be a fairly brief and ruthless military intervention.... The president will give an order. [The attack] will be rapid, accurate and dazzling.... It will be greeted by the majority of the Iraqi people as an emancipation. And I say, bring it on."
(Christopher Hitchens, in a 1/28/03 debate-- cited in the Observer, 3/30/03)


"I will bet you the best dinner in the gaslight district of San Diego that military action will not last more than a week. Are you willing to take that wager?"
(Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, 1/29/03)


"It won't take weeks. You know that, professor. Our military machine will crush Iraq in a matter of days and there's no question that it will."
(Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, 2/10/03)


"There's no way. There's absolutely no way. They may bomb for a matter of weeks, try to soften them up as they did in Afghanistan. But once the United States and Britain unleash, it's maybe hours. They're going to fold like that."
(Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, 2/10/03)


"He [Saddam Hussein] actually thought that he could stop us and win the debate worldwide. But he didn't--he didn't bargain on a two- or three week war. I actually thought it would be less than two weeks."
(NBC reporter Fred Francis, Chris Matthews Show, 4/13/03)


Weapons of Mass Destruction

NPR's Mara Liasson: Where there was a debate about whether or not Iraq had these weapons of mass destruction and whether we can find it...

Brit Hume: No, there wasn't. Nobody seriously argued that he didn't have them beforehand. Nobody.
(Fox News Channel, April 6, 2003)


"Speaking to the U.N. Security Council last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell made so strong a case that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is in material breach of U.N. resolutions that only the duped, the dumb and the desperate could ignore it."
(Cal Thomas, syndicated column, 2/12/03)


"Saddam could decide to take Baghdad with him. One Arab intelligence officer interviewed by Newsweek spoke of 'the green mushroom' over Baghdad--the modern-day caliph bidding a grotesque bio-chem farewell to the land of the living alongside thousands of his subjects as well as his enemies. Saddam wants to be remembered. He has the means and the demonic imagination. It is up to U.S. armed forces to stop him before he can achieve notoriety for all time."
(Newsweek, 3/17/03)


"Chris, more than anything else, real vindication for the administration. One, credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Two, you know what? There were a lot of terrorists here, really bad guys. I saw them."
(MSNBC reporter Bob Arnot, 4/9/03)


"Even in the flush of triumph, doubts will be raised. Where are the supplies of germs and poison gas and plans for nukes to justify pre-emption? (Freed scientists will lead us to caches no inspectors could find.) What about remaining danger from Baathist torturers and war criminals forming pockets of resistance and plotting vengeance? (Their death wish is our command.)"
(New York Times' William Safire, 4/10/03)


CORRECTION

This advisory mistakenly included an out-of-context quote from William Raspberry’s April 14, 2003 Washington Post column. FAIR's advisory inaccurately presented Raspberry’s column as an example of overly optimistic pundit commentary about the invasion of Iraq. Contrary to FAIR’s presentation, Raspberry’s column called attention to and rejected the same sort of premature triumphalism and marginalization of critics that was the subject of FAIR's media advisory. FAIR should have presented the Raspberry column as an exceptional example of a media figure challenging the conventional wisdom early in the Iraq War.

FAIR sincerely regrets the error and offers an apology to William Raspberry and to our readers.

Also in the advisory, the Tony Snow item originally dated 4/27/03 has been corrected to 4/13/03.

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05/06/2008

Why I (try to) work out

To have been posted yesterday, but written today,

I'm tired, my legs are tired, I walked and walked and walked, I feel like I was on a vision quest to the Himalayans and all I got was this lousy tee shirt, except I didn't get a tee shirt.
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Such are the contradictions of working muscle tissues in order to strengthen them. Normal people, the ones not sitting home on disability, living the good life, like me, must work and we all know from 9th grade science, work, means moving mass through space, in, of itself, exercise.
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But, I want to be strong. I don't want to be shriveled and old. The minute I heard of muscle entropy, I knew it wasn't for me. Brain entropy maybe...In short, I want to be the best looking corpse in the funeral home.
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One of my favorite sayings, favorite, because I invented it, is, IT'S EASIER TO STAY IN SHAPE THAN IT IS TO GET IN SHAPE. And. I believe that, so I often make the argument that I work out because I'm lazy.
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When not in shape and doing abdominal exercise, such as sit-ups for instance, one gains a keen appreciation of muscle tissue. Because, deceitful, euphoria inducing endorphins lull our bodies into a false sense of great physical alacrity, the afore mentioned sit-up's effect on the weak, unconditioned abdominals is best compared to a mule kick to the solar plexus with the next two days generally spent neither breathing or moving.
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But, I see the benefits to my "program" on the horizon: the Errol Flynn bravado and flamboyance, the Rocky Balboa determination and the Chuck Norris endorsement. While I'm not naive enough to believe I'll reverse the aging process, I'm vain enough to believe that a true hunk is waiting deep inside this disheveled, gelatinous glob of a pusillanimity to, someday, kick sand in some skinny prick's face right in front of his disproportionately drawn girl friend.    Gene
955ddf1cfe84ee41e14b9dd71c4e47c7.jpg

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05/04/2008

Writing just to write

Typical left wing doo doo,
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I'd be dangerous if I had a clue, but I don't. I only have this machine screaming "Hear Ye, Hear Ye."
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Truth be told, I don't spend a lot of time reading, or more properly, I deduce the author's point and then consider the rest amplification and buttress.
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If pundits, commentators and learned men wrote like O' Henry with surprise endings it would be incumbent upon the reader to read to the very last period.
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"......I completely disavow anything that proceeds this sentence," might be one ending, so that, expressing odd, or contradictory thoughts in advance and leaving the reader slightly perplexed, stimulated or amused is, all at once, in the last sentence, rendered inert.
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But that would be silly. However, how, on the other hand, isn't reading something written by a hack like Krauthammer, silly? Or, silliness aside, the biggest tool in the hack's toolbox? Completely ignoring the obvious.
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They take us on journeys that deride and destroy a second party association, and make their deadly, corrupt first party associations somehow, innocuous in their, "We have decided to overlook our own complicities and derangements in the name of solidarity to the party that's driving America to it's knees."
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I like to make Krauthammer my object of derision, he's so deserving but aren't they all? Isn't Bill Kristol? Isn't the whole Fox network? Don't they all stand at the gates of hell bidding us entrance?
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Oh, one more thing, I completely disavow anything that proceeds this sentence.  Gene

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04/30/2008

Uncle Gene's Fun House

Morning Kiddies! Another day of hi-jinks and capers at Uncle Gene's Fun House!

Let's form a circle kids! OK, first, I'm going to whisper a secret in Johnny's ear and he's going to whisper it in Melinda's ear and on and on until it comes back around. Let's go!

Me:

Dick Cheney is a jerk!

Johnny:

Dick Cheney is a tool for the oil industry and a jerk!

 Melinda:

Dick Cheney is a tool for the oil industry, a cowardly war monger and a jerk!

Tommy:

Dick Cheney is a tool for the oil industry, a cowardly war monger, a liar and a jerk!

Sally:

Dick Cheney is a tool for the oil industry, a cowardly war monger, a liar, a criminal and a Jerk!

Becky:

Dick Cheney is a tool for the oil industry, a cowardly war monger, a liar, a criminal, a sneering sociopath and a jerk!

Ronald:

Dick Cheney is a tool....

OK Kids! Now that you know how the game works, try it at home. If you really want to have some fun, include swear words, just like the big people do! 

This is Uncle Gene, signing off! 

 

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04/28/2008

Musings

No one ask me, but ... 

The thing that disturbs me unmercilessly, almost as much as the crisis of militarism and our gradual loss of humanity, is the right wing's inability to appraise their failures. At every turn, any criticism that they level against political rivals, ( And don't they love to point the finger?) they have, on their side, countless, outrageous examples of systematic breakdown and pure incompetence double wrapped in hubris.

The truth is evident not in words, they can always find eloquent spokesman and women, but in the minutia of our daily lives: the price of gas, our lack of any national goals or ideals, the feeling that we are all Americans and any one child without access to medical care, any utility company willing to break or bend the rules for profit is an outrage for all of us.

If, as has been established, corporations are persons with rights and freedom of speech they should be held to the same standards that the poorest are held to. Were is their patriotism? Why is it always business as usual back home when our best and brightest are dying, fighting for a lie?

I can think of nothing more satisfying or just than having Donald Rumsfeld serving prison meals, Dick Cheney marking off the days left and weighing whether he'll live to see the sky again, George W. Bush explaining before a judge why he didn't know he was committing war crimes, why he didn't know violating international treaties was a crime, why he thinks murdering innocent people is good foreign policy.

Gitmo should be kept up and running as a monument to our national shame, but housing only the fabulously audacious public servants that abuse their charge, their pledge to uphold the constitution and work to defeat the dream of a fair and just America, a good country to raise our kids, not a nightmare of probable calamities waiting to befall us.

Primarily, Americans need to grow up and stop being afraid, stop allowing ourselves to be controlled by it, stop thinking being inflexible is a good thing, stop pretending that we are still pioneers on the frontier and individuality means being insular. Pride has preceded our fall, and only humility will bring us back.    Gene

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Cheney's Toy--James McMurtry

Found this at Firedoglake: Cheney's Toy. Music by James McMurtry, video by Carolyn Macartney, a 2008 production of cmacpictures.

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04/27/2008

Stonehenge basics for do-it-yourselfers

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04/24/2008

Trying to make common sense

The tyrant at our gate,
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It's odd, with all the protections that our Constitution provides against man or party becoming despotic, it's happened anyway, and, even with the main stream media's weak performance, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of reliable reports and investigations that reveal corruption, collusion and coercion that are summarily ignored, or worse, these acts of cowardice and greed are extolled as being patriotic and the right thing to do.
>
I don't mind that people live in an alternate reality, hell, I've lived in them myself, but I still knew that the larger reality, the one I didn't create, was dominate. I could tweak it a little this way or that, but the rules were set and even if I didn't like them, I knew I was bound by them.
>
So the question is: how do the ones in charge, however that's defined, reconcile their behavior enough to believe that, even though it goes against every established American principle, that their way is the right way? And -- why do the ones that they convince to agree with them or that agree on their own not to oppose what they know is wrong, reconcile that?
>
The truth is much uglier than I want to believe. There is such a chasm of class in this country today, that no one can, and, few even bother to try to, bridge it. The lower classes are use to having to struggle, the middle class is beginning to understand in degrees, but the upper class need not give it a thought.
>
These are huge generalizations and there's a huge difference between millionaire and billionaires but the millionaires, being closer the edge of the chasm, fight even harder than the billionaires for more, more, more.
>
Nothing trumps creature comfort and insuring that your particular genetic line survives. Nothing trumps being made to feel superior by virtue of wealth, position and power, being made to feel that you are a real, special individual. It's an irresistible lure while shouting that life is unfair or difficult falls on deaf ears.
>
The media has pushed back the tipping point. Their siren song of mass delusion keeps us in check, keeps us at each other's throat instead of amassing and concentrating the same power that made the French revolution seek justice at the aristocracy's throat.
>
That kind of justice seems so barbaric, so removed and, although Thomas Jefferson wrote that he supported the French revolution, we cannot, would not, today, use that same barbarism. Our barbarism has to be in words not in deeds, such a long struggle to reclaim what we once took for granted.   Gene
O! Ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom has been haunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! recieve the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind. --Thomas Paine, Common Sense

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04/23/2008

The Wizard of Oz with a queer ending

Just for the hell of it,

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04/22/2008

Flatland

In 1884 Edwin A. Abbott wrote a short novel called Flatland. He explored a two dimensional universe occupied by Flatlanders. Looking ahead, to the side or the back, Flatlanders could only see a line spread out infinitely in both directions. They could discern the nature of things based on the light passing through them and variations of shadow and light. Triangles were less developed than Squares, Squares less than Pentagons and on and on until beings approached circularity. In Flatland no true circles existed but the circle-like entities were revered.

One day A. Square is visited by a Sphere passing through Flatland. A. Square is taken on a 3 dimensional odyssey, and, looking down at Flatland in awe, he is able to grasp the nature of the 3rd dimension.

Of course, no one listens to his fantastic tale when he returns and his attempts to explain the "third" dimension fall on deaf ears.

The whole story is allegorical based on math and human nature. Edwin A. Abbott was also a keen satirist.

From the below trailer and other trailers that I've watched, I think the movie excludes a very important point made in the book; A. Square, once convinced of the 3rd dimension, where two dimensional insides can be seen, asks the Sphere to take him to the next dimension where even the Sphere's insides can be seen. The Sphere dismisses this notion as impossible and seems impervious the same sort of revelation that he is trying to reveal to A. Square.

This isn't the first movie that has been made about Flatland but it is post-YouTube.

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Voters, Angels and Dodos

Election day in Pennsylvania,
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Voting is a good idea unless you're so disconnected from the system that you can't manage one little "give a shit." You should stop smoking and you should vote. You should eat better and exercise. You should be a good citizen and ask not what your country can do for you, but what you ...
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OK, I'm going to ask, what can I do for my country? Fight in a war? No, that's doing something for the government crazies that see terrorists or communists, or a boogeyman threat under every bed. I guess I could plant trees or clean up the highway but I'd probably be shot by some irate land owner or run over by a car. I could volunteer to help in any of a thousand different worthwhile organizations. Is the country the land or the people?
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When I go in that little booth, oops it's not a booth anymore, it's like the telephone booth, gone the way of the *Dodo bird, I'll see bells, buzzers and names. I only know 3 people that I'm sure to vote for. What do I do about the others? Push and Pray? Vote those 3 and screw the rest? Ask for help? Wish I was a more informed citizen? This voting roulette probably isn't what the founders had in mind but I don't see Adams, Jefferson or Madison on the ballot. 
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The much maligned but noble Dodo
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I feel like a crappy American, like a reject. Bright shiny politician wannabe's greeted me at the door. Why can't I be like that? All friendly and connected and shit? The women of the election board are the same women that sat there when I moved into this district 32 years ago. Soon this will all be gone, for us anyway.
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In heaven, will we have to vote?. St. Peter is as good as St. Paul. I wonder what my job will be in heaven? Manufacturing probably isn't big, service industry probably. I could wait on some muckity muck angel, be his butler or Man Friday.
God called yesterday your Angelness, he wants you to inspire a bunch of disenfranchised voters on Earth.
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I hate doing that.
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It's not that bad, is it, your, Celestial Hierarchy Sir?
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Why don't they send the Seraphim or the Cherubim? Why is it always me?
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I can't answer that, Sir... I know ... send me!
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You? You? Don't make me laugh.
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I can do it. I'll tell them that if they don't vote that the Angels in heaven will cry.
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Jesus!
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Should I get him?
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NO! Go ahead and do it but don't say anything to God, let him think that I went. And make sure to you don't say anything to those blabber mouth Archangels.
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Got it! I'm off! (To myself) This is a pretty good gig after all. At the next Angel conference I'm going to ask _____ to nominate me for **Malakhim!
*Portuguese: doudo, literally, "stupid." Who the fuck are we to call a bird stupid?
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 **The lowest order of the angels, and the most familiar to men. They are the ones most concerned with the affairs of living things, messengers.

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04/18/2008

Here it comes

Here it is
The cold blank screen waiting or indifferent towards words
The searching eyes looking for fun
The new exciting blogworld spinning like a top hat
The citizen journalist creeping like an ivy
Oh here it comes
here it comes
Here it is
The battle of the bands
The war of the roses
The stiff upper lip
The cold shoulder
All the eggs
One basket
Oh here it comes
Here it comes
It's on us now you can't run
Hide
It's over there grab it
Too late
Understand it
Why bother
It's hooked you by the collar
You're going down
The ground's approaching
Oh here it comes
Here it comes

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04/17/2008

Ann Coulter: We hardly knew ya

Thanks to ever dependable, Bill, who found this parody at:
Don't miss the bogus Rupert Murdoc video.
(By the way, where's that sexy Adam's Apple?)
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04/16/2008

Hand Job

Stitches come out in 2 hours. Taxes done with a day to spare. Life is good.
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04/15/2008

Up late

The stigmata that never was,
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Let's say you had puncture wounds cut deep into your hands. You weren't particularly religious but you used your hands a lot, and, so, based on a 6 week healing cycle, one after the other, the left and then the right hand, were and will be punctured to accommodate some kind of surgical repair.
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You thought about the crucifixion a lot and just watched *The Name of the Rose with Sean Connery. You've liked Ron Perlman since you first saw him in the french movie, **The City of Lost Children but then realized that you had really seen him for the first time in Quest for Fire.
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In the Sean Connery movie he portrayed a sort of disfigured, religious idiot savant and was brilliant especially after they set him on fire for heresy or Satan worship or whatever crime netted him a nice cozy bonfire in Northern Italy in 1327.
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The Catholic Church inspired by religious zealotry was the real culprit, but then, as now, the real culprits got away scot-free. Oh, a few Arch Bishops or men with funny hats may go down the tubes along the way but the Church itself stays pretty well intact.
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There was a debate that took place in the movie between the representatives of the Catholic Church and the Franciscan Monks. The monks maintained that Jesus was a pauper and didn't even own the clothes on his back. The Church agreed but argued that even though Christ was poor, that it wasn't meant for the Church to be poor. I thought the Chruch was brilliant in its perverse logic.
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At issue in the movie was a secret book kept in the monastery's extensive secret library. The Church was so at odds with this book that the ink with which it was reproduced  from the Greek contained a high degree of arsenic and anyone thumbing through would eventually wet his thumb and poison themselves. What was in the book? Funny stories. Yes, humor, it was allegedly written by Aristotle and poked fun at the establishment.
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Some of the more serious church brethren thought that laughter offended God and would eventually lead to laughing at God directly. They were probably right but still a Franciscan 007 was on the case, murder, murder and more murder.
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So, I kept thinking about my hand, about spikes and crosses and ancient texts and why some books were included in the bible and others excluded and what's it all mean and why are we here? And then an incomplete thought came to me, it was like a vision but more of a feeling. I felt the wind rushing only the wind wasn't the wind it was the spirit, it was power. Sometimes it blew on the common people and sometimes on the rich, sometimes on the strong and sometimes on the weak. It had no pattern that could be discerned. It bequeathed knowledge and the potential for good and evil. It blew on you and moved on.
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I though about Dylan and The Answer is Blowing in the Wind. I thought about Jesus telling Nicodemus:
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
**The City of Lost Children

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04/11/2008

It's a dog's life

I wonder if anyone has ever written themselves out of a bad mood. I wonder, if it's possible, is it fair? Wouldn't it pass that bad mood on to someone else? Here, take my burden, I'm not heavy, I'm your brother.

I could analyze my mood to death and kill it. Or, I could just declare myself to be a bad mood free zone. That has the texture and feel of a post Y2K, post 9-11, post war on drugs, war on poverty, war on terror solution. Just announce that you can't possibly have the afore mentioned malady because it's not in your nature to have it.

I could turn to science and jack up the zoloft. Or, seek out less fortunate's and read their pathetic stories and feel better by comparison.  I could, for once in my life, just let this pass, as in; this too shall pass. I could fall back on my life's accumulation of good works and goods deeds to comfort me, ahhh ... no I couldn't.

There's always the philosophical approach. Take the good with the bad, or the bad with the good and all that stuff. I could get in my car and ride, ride ride let it ride, but the first red light would so ruin the mood. A movie? A martini? Food? Exercise? Maybe a Dominatrix could whip me into shape.

A walk might do the trick. I took a long one yesterday, it just made me tired.

I'm going to buck-up. I'm going to take a hot shower. Wrap my hand so as not to get the bandage wet, the stitches wet, Once I'm clean I always feel better. Clear clothes make the man. I'll turn on all the lights in the house, make it festive. I'll beat this before it beats me!

The strangest thing just happened, my neighbor called and asked if I can drive her and her dog to the vets. He's feeling glum. Hmmmm. Poor pooch. OK, I'm off.    Gene

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04/09/2008

today's meditation

ruffled thoughts passing through a ruffled head,

i know you're chewing the keyboard worrying about me and my hand. it's only natural ... while typing with one hand isn't.

having surgery is a great way to call your markers in, the domestic ones anyway. fluff that pillow bitch! now make me a cup of tea! but, wouldn't the people that offer to do stuff for you when hammer falls, shit their pants if you actually called on them for something? oh yeah, there is something you can do for me. can you come over right now and clean the windows?
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i'm contemplating tapping a baggie over my hand and taking a shower. it's either that or park my ass in front of the tv again. i could pop a vicodin but i'm saving those babies to accommodate the sleep process. the last thing i want is to walk the floors with a thumpity thump, thumpity thump thump.
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showering is surprisingly difficult using only one hand and I wish someone was here to tuck my shirt in on the back left.
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unfortunately, i have no interest in watching general petraeus testify again today, no mood is so gloomy that that wouldn't make it worse. can you imagine, i sit around feeling crappy about my hand while millions suffer far more than i'll ever be able to understand?
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there's only one thing i'm suited for right now, one thing that i'm in a particularly good situation to do; i must go and contemplate the sound of one hand clapping ... gene

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04/07/2008

Speaking of hands ...

Meander and stray, 
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The receptionist, or nurse or whoever it is that doubles for a medical professional these days just called to give me the details of my hand surgery tomorrow. She included instructions, registration information, and  asked me some medication questions. Then she said, "You'll need a responsible adult to drive you home," I said, "Where am I going to find one of those?"
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So, tomorrow's the day. Unfortunately, I won't be completely knocked out. I like being completely knocked out. You wake up and the procedure is over, whatever it was that the doctor shoved up your ass or down your throat, or, even if he had to create his own porthole into your body, is over and out.
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While we're on the subject, of all the evasive tubes and electrodes that can be somehow affixed, to, or in, your body the breathing tube is the worst.
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A big fat tube blocks the airway, it's supposed to supply air too, but the body's natural reflex to reject it and eject it, is paramount. You have to learn, on the brink of panic, to relax and not fight the reflex reaction of trying to breath naturally in order to not choke to death. Once you relax, you can breath, but still, you have this giant sewer pipe shoved down your throat.
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I don't expect anything awful tomorrow. It will go smoothly and if not, how many people die from hand surgery gone awry?
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Speaking of hands, I wonder if they were able to pry Charlton Heston's cold, dead hand from his gun? I know that's an awful thing to say, but he started it.
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Days like this day, I like to spend a lot of time feeling useless and unwanted. I could occupy myself being productive by doing any number of things but I did push-ups and abdominal exercises instead. Now I can buffer my feeling of haplessness with the knowledge that I did something even if it only benefited me, besides, now I'm too tired to feel my usual degree of self contempt. So it worked, kind of.
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I'm still mulling over doing my taxes. I'll keep you posted.
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My comments on a blog created a stir, not so much out of content as out of the confusion of not posting my URL. When I finally did post it, I think I also posted a fellow commenter URL thinking that cut and pasting her name was just a matter of cut and pasting her name when, it actually cut and pasted her URL.
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I don't even know what a URL is. So, after the confusion and my apologies, the said blogger dedicated a post to me. It was a video of David Bowies, Jean, Jeanie. He titled it, For Gene, so despite the J's and G's mix-up, I assumed it was to me. I felt honored and a little stupefied. The next day he deleted the post and comments. The good blogger giveth and the good blogger taketh away.
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I'm still fascinated by the soap opera-ish nature of http://politits.blogspot.com/ which I read daily and also comment on from time to time. She'd hate that I called her blog "soap opera-ish" but I mean in the continuing saga sense. Her writing is crisp and jugular crimping, unlike mine that meanders and strays only to sometimes return to the subject at hand.
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Speaking of hands, did I mention .... ?     Gene

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04/03/2008

Kudos to Mike Doyle

Here's a little local color from Crooks and Liars. I'm proud that Mike Doyle is my Congressman. Wouldn't it be nice if instead of killing, burning and maiming people we worked together to find cures and treatments for people that need them?

Autism Day!

Posted: 02 Apr 2008 08:16 PM CDT

http://static.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/la-skyline.jpg

Good for congressman Rep. Mike Doyle…

The United Nations has designated April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day. To mark this historic occasion, the Autism Society of America, the World Autism Organization and the Co-Chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Coalition for Autism Research and Education (C.A.R.E.), Rep. Chris Smith and Rep. Mike Doyle, will hold a press conference on the Cannon Terrace to build support for critical legislation that would provide needed autism services in the U.S. and around the world.

In February 2008, a bi-partisan group of legislators joined Congressmen Smith and Doyle in introducing the Global Autism Assistance Act, (HR 5446). This landmark legislation will establish a global health and education grant program related to autism spectrum disorders and provide support to families, educational institutions, clinics and medical centers in developing nations…read on

Related: Above shows L.A. Skyline by Stephen Wiltshire, who is diagnosed with autism. Click image for larger and read more about him and his work here. The PRI program Studio 360 had an excellent show this past weekend on Art and Autism which can be streamed and/or downloaded for free

How far would the projected 3 trillion dollars, that we've spent and will continue to spend on the war in Iraq, go to alleviate suffering and bring some degree of normalcy to people in need, many of them children, dying unnecessarily from things as treatable as *diarrhea?   Gene

*Globally, more than 10 million children under the age of five die every year, with the majority of deaths occurring in developing countries. Nearly 20 percent of these deaths — 2.2 million — are due to mostly preventable diarrheal disease from unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation and hygiene. This represents about 4,500 children dying every day — more than the number of children who die from malaria, AIDS, and TB combined.

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04/02/2008

Starman

Woke up this morn with this song in my head,

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04/01/2008

It's all about oil, Olive Oil

I forgot that I saved this picture or where it came from. Thanks to whoever created it and posted it. It's a beaut!

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So maybe we don't all live in a Yellow Submarine?

 The latest addition to the Fish Wall,

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The Fish Wall
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The Fish Wall is a work in progress and a triumph of second hand store shopping. Not everything displayed is fish related except in the Darwinian sense.
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The Fish Wall would never have been possible without the help and support of many people. I'd like to take the time, right now, to thank a few; my parents for presenting me the opportunity to learn the value of second hand junk, my friends for all their encouragement, my readers for sticking with me through the hard times, my agent, LOVE YA BERNIE! And all the fabulous people over at design, but most of all, I'd like to thank the people that selflessly gave their cherished junk away to the Salvation Army and never looked back, they made this all possible!  I think I'm tearing up ... Damn ... I promised myself not to cry ...  Damn ...
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Forever humbled, knowing that, someday, the Fish Wall will be preserved for all to see, probably in the Smithsonian ... Gene

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03/31/2008

Our annual report

To my ever decreasing readership,

Some self examination; I've been reading my blog, entries going back a few weeks and I can't believe I write like this. I sound like I'm writing a "how-to manual" on how to be me. Since I mostly suck, I presume that to be a mistake. I don't have any plans to change though. Tough luck all the way around.  Gene

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03/30/2008

Ain't that the shit?

From a demonstrably better blog than mine Tony White: Graffiti:

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More stop loss strategies

For your consideration,
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The surge is not working in Iraq. Therefore, I propose the following strategies, that, while also destined to fail, have the inestimable value of being touted by press and politicians alike as working, at least temporarily, until refuted by the next round of escalating violence:
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The Purge: 
Secret, killer micro-drones are released across Iraq. These designer weapons can be programmed to adapt and morph as the situation requires targeting any form of  Islam or insurgent that can be quantified. They have the option of leaving everything in Iraq, except oil, radioactive for the next one million years.  
The Urge:
Powerful laxatives are introduced into the water system rendering the terrorists indispose.
The Splurge:
This has been tried in various forms before and is akin to throwing money at the problem, but, never has it been employed to this extreme. One hundred dollar bills are dumped from cargo planes smothering insurgent strongholds in up to 15 feet of greenbacks. Daily terrorist operations will grind to a halt as money must be cleared from streets, buildings and houses. As soon as the money has been cleared we repeat until the terrorists give up in frustration.
The Dirge:
Loud, lugubrious music will play night and day throughout Iraq. Everyone will be too depressed to fight.
The Merge:
Shiites and Sunnis will be rounded up and compressed, at a one to one ratio, into one person, rendering differing theocracies irrelevant. This idea is so stupid I can't believe that I wrote it, but, we could still sell it to the public, they bought the surge didn't they?  Gene

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03/29/2008

If we can't withdraw into to our carefree, luxurious life styles anymore, you guys may find yourselves in trouble

Oh, did we forget to mention ... 
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Don Siegleman is out of jail. If you don't know who he is, you've probably been following the main stream media. Now, in spite of whatever philosophy or unspoken agreement keeps them in line with the President's crash and burn proclivities, they have been forced to cover the story.

Oh hell, I can't find the right adjectives or clever phrases to describe the type of complicity that I see going on between the press and the White House. "Crash and burn" are secondary results. The republican war machine, the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil White House imbedded reporters, the few who do speak up, but never dare expose the true nature of the beast, these are just the tip of an iceberg that only begins to melt when the truth becomes too apparent to deny.

The press reports that the surge is working because: if they don't, some nasty, indignant republican will question their patriotism and you know, in America today, having your patriotism questioned by a lobbyist controlled, money grubbing, corrupt, non-military-serving republican is the kiss of death.

Networks and new shows have to play soft ball but call it hard ball to get the interviews, after all, they're competing with a cadre of other pandering networks and reporters, all eager to spread the company line. They can't allow dissidents, unless they present them as whacked out lefties, socialists, out to destroy society but paying a living wage or making health coverage affordable. The ones that aren't afraid to speak, like Keith Olbermann are rare but still forced to intermingle Britney Spears throughout the brew. 

When people do get to see the "Bush the bungler," stories, they're presented as our own ongoing, national, situation comedy show, replete with comedic clarinet music playing; whaw, whaw, whaw, whaw every time one of those cute malapropisms roll off his lips or when he shit his pants in public, or when he forgets and sits in the White House driveway licking his balls.

It was barely reported here that the British, who were, at the very least, hesitant about becoming involved in our war, could rest assured because, "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." Hence the lethal, highly incriminating Downing Street Memo became nothing more that a vague curiosity. A covert CIA officer working to "discover solid intelligence for senior policymakers on Iraq's presumed weapons-of-mass-destruction program" is outed by THE WHITE HOUSE and the press behaves like meek on-lookers, afraid to get involved.

We love this because what Bush really is, is too hard to fathom. Could we really have elected and then re-elected him? Or, more likely, sat idly by while he stole two elections? Our compliancy makes us accomplices and we refuse to incriminate ourselves in either case. Our conscience is clear because ... just because. We say all the right things, what else does the world expect, that we should stop bombing innocent people? Come on.

I'm not a billion dollar industry set in place as an insurance policy against the truth, I'm just a blogger, take it for what it's worth.  Gene

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03/28/2008

You are here on life's continuum

There is an unnamed rage rising up inside me. This place contains too many memories. Why do the good seem so small and the bad still burn?
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So many years ago ... I am a stranger now. Disposable people like me do their job and are forgotten, we build and move on. The future owes us nothing but at times like this the past rises up and shakes an angry fist.
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From 1976 to 1977 I worked here and yet I made a wrong turn on our way. I cursed whatever it is that fades the memory so easily.  Gina is beside me and she is sick. She has moved back with us and has no health insurance. Her husband's meager jobs have never warranted medical coverage. They too are disposable.
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Gina has been very sick for almost a week. On Tuesday she felt better but relapsed that night.
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A fat, black woman walks into the waiting room with 3 tiny kids. They have the most ridiculous hairdos. I secretly delight in how they fit the stereo-type. One of her kids probably has a cold and she's here for America's version of  free health care, the Emergency Room. Suddenly, we are equals in our need. The great, lowest, common denominator has brought us together.
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I look around and see reasons to dislike the others waiting here, their looks, their age, the fact that some DO have health care. I wonder why I am like this.
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They take Gina back to an examining room and ask me to wait until she is fully registered. My thoughts are in an uneasy place. A man wearing green hospital garb walks up to me from an unexpected direction and says my name. He pronounces it correctly. I assume he is a doctor delivering some news but he is Scott, an RN, he was in Cub Scouts with my son.
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We catch up briefly and he tells me that he has drawn blood. He points in the direction of Gina's exam room and I follow. I feel better knowing that Scott is somehow involved in Gina's care.
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The past has come back again, harkening me to the time I was an assistant Cub Scout leader. I never felt the part, I liked camping and hiking but rules and merit badges were antithetic to my nature. I felt like I wore a costume rather than a uniform. I wasn't a leader of boys but I provided something the others didn't and the boys liked me.
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Gina is sick as a dog. The doctor suspects pneumonia and that thought has also crossed my mind. Oddly, no one has mentioned money. The doctor is reassuring and kind, I am grateful.
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It's so easy to give up, to go down in a free fall of hate or disease. The world is full of pitfalls, traps and old wounds, but sometimes, goodness prevails. Gina is recovering, pumped full of pain killers and antibiotics. Her Kidneys are infected.
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The small gestures of life, sometimes forgotten, making the effort to be good in spite of how our lower nature nags and cajoles, these have inestimable healing power.  Gene

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