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May 2008 archive
May 28 2008
Muse in the Morning
May 28 2008
The Weapon of Young Gods #25: Electric Hubris
“Yeah!! Yeah, it’s like that, baby!”
Alan’s voice rang with defiant glee through the ragged PA speakers as we bashed out the last notes of “Eat Shit And Die” from the center stage of my old high school’s main hall. Our frontmanly singer-guitarist’s enthusiasm was met with scattered applause and semi-comprehension from the inert mob of teenagers below, who seemed to wonder why their lunch hour was being interrupted by an assault of Old Dead Sixties Music. Alan sensed that his precious span of glory was almost over, and he wasn’t gonna go without a fight.
May 28 2008
Will private enterprise stop the bully?
I going to do my damndest here to define the phrase “free and open markets” as used by the neocons and the Chicago School of economics. But don’t worry, I’m not an economist, so there’ll be no equations, no graphs, no attempt to optimally balance supply and demand. Just think of me as a no-nonsense regular guy who knows what he knows and doesn’t need no college-educated fancy pants to confuse him. You know, the kind of guy half of America would like to have a beer with. And is manly enough to end a sentence with a preposition.
So, here’s my basic definition: a free and open market is a system in which “the state” has no business interfering when the biggest boy takes the smallest boy’s lunch money every day. The bully in this system is merely acting in his own self-interest. He takes what the market will pay. And if the bully ends the year as the richest kid in class, that’s proof that the cream rises to the top. Hey barkeep, gimme a refill.
Of course, some of you communist namby-pambies will whine that it isn’t fair for the big kid to pick on the little kid. The world isn’t fair, so just shut up. The fittest survive (except in the story of creation). Those who pound their swords into plows will be plowing for those who don’t. Now is that clear enough for you tax-and-spend liberals? In case your head is too filled with book-learning to understand simple facts, let me wrap it up nice and neat in an American flag for you. You see, because of our Christian forebears and all the capitalist stuff they did, Amurka now has more bombs, more tanks, and more soldiers than anybody else. That means we are the strongest, we survived, and we get to collect our free market share.
Let’s look at a few of the great successes of the Milton Friedman school, shall we? . . . um, er, I mean, jump on down below the fold to see what I’m telling you. Wait, is there a fold on dd? Ah hell, I’ll just have to let it go. How does W keep that bs persona going?
May 28 2008
Will private enterprise stop the bully?
I going to do my damndest here to define the phrase “free and open markets” as used by the neocons and the Chicago School of economics. But don’t worry, I’m not an economist, so there’ll be no equations, no graphs, no attempt to optimally balance supply and demand. Just think of me as a no-nonsense regular guy who knows what he knows and doesn’t need no college-educated fancy pants to confuse him. You know, the kind of guy half of America would like to have a beer with. And is manly enough to end a sentence with a preposition.
So, here’s my basic definition: a free and open market is a system in which “the state” has no business interfering when the biggest boy takes the smallest boy’s lunch money every day. The bully in this system is merely acting in his own self-interest. He takes what the market will pay. And if the bully ends the year as the richest kid in class, that’s proof that the cream rises to the top. Hey barkeep, gimme a refill.
Of course, some of you communist namby-pambies will whine that it isn’t fair for the big kid to pick on the little kid. The world isn’t fair, so just shut up. The fittest survive (except in the story of creation). Those who pound their swords into plows will be plowing for those who don’t. Now is that clear enough for you tax-and-spend liberals? In case your head is too filled with book-learning to understand simple facts, let me wrap it up nice and neat in an American flag for you. You see, because of our Christian forebears and all the capitalist stuff they did, Amurka now has more bombs, more tanks, and more soldiers than anybody else. That means we are the strongest, we survived, and we get to collect our free market share.
Let’s look at a few of the great successes of the Milton Friedman school, shall we? . . . um, er, I mean, jump on down below the fold to see what I’m telling you. Wait, is there a fold on dd? Ah hell, I’ll just have to let it go. How does W keep that bs persona going?
May 28 2008
Obama, McCain and Learning The Lessons of Buchenwald
“It was Soviet troops that liberated Auschwitz, so unless his uncle was serving in the Red Army, there’s no way Obama’s statement yesterday can be true,” said Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant. “Obama’s frequent exaggerations and outright distortions raise questions about his judgment and his readiness to lead as commander in chief.”
link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/…
The above is a confident statement from a confident American political operative, working for a jittery party that senses its own demise. Desperate for any political traction, they grasped today upon Obama’s mis-statement that his relative liberated Auschwitz, and not Buchenwald.
For this small historical gaffe, the GOP would have us infer that Barack Obama is not fit to be President of the United States.
But what is the greater gaffe, mislabeling one of several Nazi concentration camps, or misunderstanding the lessons of the Holocaust as our country stumbles, and trips, and reaches for light straws of hope as we seek to restore our moral authority as the world’s leader on human rights after the abuses at Abu Ghirab and the ongoing detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay?
May 28 2008
Trip Report
or “What I Did on my Holiday Weekend”
I had an awesome time on the Mendocino Coast – about 140 miles north of San Francisco. It was a special celebration in honor of my brother-in-law’s 60th birthday. My sister and her husband rented a 5 bedroom house on a bluff right next to the ocean. The above picture is a view from the deck. All of their close friends from the Bay Area came up as well as another couple from the Midwest. It was kind of like The Big Chill meets Sideways.
May 28 2008
a little sentimental
it was the very first time i ever felt like an american.
it was 1989. it was the Vietnam Memorial. it was the 50,000 plus names. it was the old couple fingering letters engraved in the black granite wall… their tenderness took my breath away. it was the grown man, brought to his knees, sobbing with his face buried in the shoulder of his little boy, who was patting him on the back. it was this moment, this experience that transcended my family, my friends, my neighborhood.
it was the day i started to become an american. my transformation became complete upon reading “The Indispensable Man” by James Flexner. it was about George Washington. all i can say is read it.
i’m not really a chauvinist. but i am a pack member. i am one of a group of people who, for a brief shining moment, gave the world a belief in freedom. individual rights. justice. and i love america for these things. i will always love america for these things.
america. its genius is in distribution of power. and forcing us to debate our constitution. it was never meant to be a static document. but a dynamic force. forever a stepping stone. there is nothing constructionist about it. and there never was.
as america contracts after more than 30 years of political liars, murderers, and elitists, i am leaving. moving across an ocean to another continent.
and i’m feeling a little bit like a traitor. leaving when i should be staying. leaving when i should be working to over throw the two party system. leaving when lunatics run the asylum.
May 28 2008
Rare EF5 Tornado Destroys Parkersburg, IA
The National Weather Service conducted a site survey of the damage sustained in Parkersburg, IA from a tornado that struck the area Sunday evening, and confirmed that it was a rare EF5, the highest measure on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. The NWS states that top wind speeds from the tornado were estimated to be 205 MPH. That’s about the top speed of a car running in a NASCAR race. Now imagine the car is indestructible, is one mile wide, and travels 43 miles. That’s what hit Parkersburg and several other neighboring towns.
May 28 2008
Anti-Semites, Gay-baiters, Misogynists Unite!!
Buchenwald, Shmuchenwald, Auschwitz.. Vat’s da difference? Looking to make some new friends among Holocaust survivors? Lie about your support for groups and individuals hostile to Israel. Claim your great grand-daddy liberated one of them heinous Nazi death camps. Which camp? Who cares?
Pandering to Jewish voters on Memorial Day. Wow! Talk about breathing fresh air into old politics! Getting Buchenwald and Auschwitz mixed up shows just how much the Holocaust actually means to Obama. The folks involved in the liberation of Nazi death camps do deserve immense credit. Folks trying to exploit that sacrifice and then bungling it? Not so much.
Family war stories get murky in the re-telling. But if a candidate is going to grandstand on the national stage on the graves of the greatest crimes of the modern age, and make a great big fucking deal about how important it is we all remember the horror and how it happened, the mouthpiece might at least get his fucking facts straight.
Obama’s problem is that many believe Obama couldn’t give a shit about Israel, Holocaust survivors, women, the poor in America, or anything but getting elected. How unfair! Especially when Obama has dedicated his whole life, not to national service or working with the poor in other countries, as he preaches others should do, but building the Obama brand: Change you can believe in Inc.
Obama has written two inspirational books about Himself, in which potential investors/devotees can examine all the un-varnished details as he Himself describes Himself without a hint of self-aggrandizement or dishonesty. The whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me, Me.
Clapping hands, singing about Satan and the sin of lying with another man, accusing the ‘woman’ of using her female tricks to win sympathy, standing on the graves of the dead to win a few more votes, this is truly change you can believe in.
Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, William Ayers, Michelle Obama, Donnie McClurkin, Mary-Mary, Bernadine Dohrn, it don’t matter who said what or when; none of these folks in any way speaks for the Obama whose grand-daddy liberated Auschwitz/Buchenwald/ America.
After Obama ascends: No more politics of division, or hate, or cynicism. Any connection between Obama and McClurkin, Ayers, Wright, Michelle Obama et al is purely coincidental. Their actions and statements in no way reflect the deeply-held views of the candidate whose heart brims only with love and hope for all, especially on this special day for all the Jew folks who died in those death camps way-off in Germany/Poland wherever it was; and who, each and everyone of them, owe their liberty to me, my family and my grand-daddy. Whatever.
Don’t forget to vote and God Bless America!
May 28 2008
$600 million for Iraq police?
May 28 2008
A mild letter brings a hate-filled message
It was the tone of voice, more than the message content, that was a little unsettling.
The caller was so enraged he could barely speak, as he left the venomous message on my answering machine, in the kind of voice that makes you want to make sure the doors are locked.
We were away and offline for the weekend, but returned to find a letter to the editor from me had been printed in the Memorial Day edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I wrote it after the JS editorialized on the war last week and invited reader comments. I expected it would be one of many on the issue, but that wasn't the case. It was a simple letter:
Withdraw from IraqWhat is it that George Bush and John McCain fear about setting a timeline and getting U.S. troops out of Iraq – that we will have blood on our hands?
We already do. Four thousand Americans dead, 30,000 more wounded. Countless thousands of lives permanently shattered. Perhaps a million Iraqis dead; we don't even try to count. Four million others forced to flee their homes.
There will be no "victory" in Iraq. Withdrawing our troops will be a victory for sanity and rational behavior and a defeat for aggression justified by lies.
Yes, we need a timeline for getting out of Iraq – and the shorter the better.
Hardly anything to get worked up about, even if you disagree. Or that's what I thought until I listened to the message from the anonymous caller.
I started to transcribe it, but accidentally erased part of it. (I was half-thinking I should save it so the police could use the voice scan in case I turn up dead.) This doesn’t even do it justice, but gives you the flavor. It was actually worse:
Hey, Billy boy, stupid editorial. The troops will stay there until the fucking job is done. You fucking cowards, you liberal cowards should get on your knees and thank George Bush for saving your cowardly asses. You should crawl back under your fucking rock. John McCain is easily going to beat Hussein Obama’s ass. You are a coward and a loser.
It is hard to understand that kind of anger, even rage. I think John McCain is dead wrong on Iraq, but I don't hate him. I don't even hate George Bush or Dick Cheney or Condoleeza Rice, who caused the deaths I wrote about.
I don't want to kill them, or even beat them up. I just want them to go away.
After the poison message, the answering machine kept running. This from what sounded like a younger man:
Hi, I read your letter to the editor and I just want to say wonderful, wonderful. Thank you so much for doing that. I couldn’t agree more.
He even left his name.
In my book, that more than makes it even.