November 2007 archive

   Each year at Thanksgiving it is a tradition at our house, while the oyster stew is eaten, to tell what you are thankful for this year. We do this instead of saying grace. Usually either I or my husband will start, then whoever wants to goes next, until everyone (& the stew) is done.

   It is so easy to get caught up in what is wrong, what you’d like to change. This one day is the perfect time to count your blessings, reflect on what you have, & what you are truly thankful for.

This year, I am thankful that…

I thought this was the cutest thing I’d ever seen – the cats are saying sweet little chirpy-meows to each other.

I normally would not reproduce an entire article, but this from Don Hazen at AlterNet is very much worth a close read, I think.

The End of America? Naomi Wolf Thinks It Could Happen

By Don Hazen, AlterNet, Wednesday 21 November 2007, via t r u t h o u t

   If you think we are living in scary times, your worst fears may be confirmed by reading Naomi Wolf’s newest book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. In it, Wolf proves the old axiom that history does repeat itself. Or more accurately, history occurs in patterns, and in order to understand where our country is today and where it is headed, we need to read the history books.

   Wolf began by diving into the early years leading up to fascist regimes, like the ones led by Hitler and Mussolini. And the patterns that she found in those, and others all over the world, made her hair stand on end. In “The End of America,” she lays out the 10 steps that dictators (or aspiring dictators) take in order to shut down an open society. “Each of those ten steps is now under way in the United States today,” she writes.

   If we want an open society, she warns, we must pay attention and we must fight to protect democracy.

   I met with Wolf to discuss what she learned while researching this book, how the American public has received her warnings, and what we can do to squelch the fascist narratives we are fed in this country each day.

   Don Hazen: Let’s take up a big question first – your fears about the upcoming U.S. presidential election and what the historical blue print about fascist takeovers shows in terms of elections.

  Naomi Wolf: We would be naive given the historical patterns to have hope that there’s going to be a transparent, accountable election in 2008. There are various ways the blueprint indicates how events are much more likely to play out. Historically, the months leading up to the national election are likely to be unstable.

   What classically happens is either there will be a period of provocation, and we have a history of this in the United States – agitators who are dressed as or act like activist voter registration workers, anti-war marchers … but who engage in actual violence, torch property, assault police officers. And that scares people. People are much less likely to vote for change when they’re scared, and it gives them the excuse to crack down.

   In addition, I’m concerned about the 2007 Defense Authorization Act, which makes it much easier for the president to declare martial law.

The latest in the saga of aging parents and their questionable competence in maintaining their suburban household is thus.

A two day old installation of an energy efficient oil burner system failed.  The old oil pumped from the old oil tank clogged the oil burner nozzle causing it to misfire and clog the “efficient” boiler with black soot.  The fire department was called.  Being in the transition stage from friendly helpful concerned with people small town to big assholian city attitudes one fireman said ” Well he best have pulled a permit” and “We are shutting it down and you will need to find another place to stay”.  Yes this cretin is talking to a sevety-four year old woman and her eighty four year old husband.  Clearly a product of the six year “war on terra”.  Since when did the fire department become part of the code enforcement police.  Yes, I know in the big city this is completely accepted function but I was under the wholly mistaken impression that the fire department was there to help people, excuse me.  A simple why don’t you call XYZ oil burner service, I use them and they are very good.  But no, a visit by the fire department came with an apparent eviction notice.

Really I live only 5 minutes away yet I cannot protect my aging parents from the assholes of this world and this has to be the most damming indictment of government left or right federal state and local.