More of SpongeBush's Drivel and Dung
SpongeBush SquarePants!
SpongeBob, as his song goes,
"lives in a pineapple under the sea/
absorbent and yellow and porous is he!"
SpongeBush lives in a bubble in D.C./
absorbent and shallow and porous is he!
Love that Maureen Dowd, quoted from here, which I can't get to, but I can get to here -- where she ends her Op Ed piece with:
Dick Cheney is a gruff Mr. Krabs taskmaster to SpongeBush, but SpongeBush is crazy about him anyhow. W. trustingly let his vice president make the worst-case scenario about Iraq a first-case scenario.
Bush might have thought he was just blowing pretty bubbles full of lofty ideals about freedom and liberty in his speech, but Cheney and the neocons seem intent on filleting Iran and Syria. (Doesn't Richard Perle remind you of the snarky and pretentious next-door neighbor to SpongeBob, Squidward Tentacles?)
The vice president told Don Imus that Iran was "right at the top of the list" of trouble spots.
Even if he's a little light in the flippers, SpongeBob has brought children good, clean fun. SpongeBush has brought the world dark, endless fights.
Her clever comparison is in response to conservative Christian leader and gay marriage opponent, Dr. James Dobson, claiming that a "pro-homosexual video" -- starring SpongeBob, Barney, Jimmy Neutron, Winnie the Pooh, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy -- was set to go to elementary schools to promote a "tolerance pledge," including tolerance for differences of "sexual identity.
Dan Martinsen, a spokesman for Nickelodeon, where SpongeBob beats the pants off the competition, was flummoxed: "It's a sponge for crying out loud. He has no sexuality."
Then there's the one about the guy that the Bushies put into a high-level position regarding the issue of climate changes, in order to replace the previous such person who was viewed as too strident in support of science saying climate change is real. The new guy installed by those drivel and dung Bushies just made public a statement saying that climate change is real and in need of
immediate action.
As reported on Common Dreams,
A memorandum from Exxon to the White House in early 2001 specifically asked it to get the previous chairman, Dr Robert Watson, the chief scientist of the World Bank, "replaced at the request of the US". The Bush administration then lobbied other countries in favor of Dr Pachauri - whom the former vice-president Al Gore called the "let's drag our feet" candidate, and got him elected to replace Dr Watson, a British-born naturalized American, who had repeatedly called for urgent action.
But this month, at a conference of Small Island Developing States on the Indian Ocean island, the new chairman, a former head of India's Tata Energy Research Institute, himself issued what top United Nations officials described as a "very courageous" challenge.
He told delegates: "Climate change is for real. We have just a small window of opportunity and it is closing rather rapidly. There is not a moment to lose."
Actually, we have four more years during which we're going to keep losing on just about every American front. All going down the drain, except, of course, what SpongeBush soaks up for his (and his friends') own benefit.
Maybe it's time to think about moving to the Urkraine.
His face still deeply scarred from massive dioxin poisoning during the presidential campaign, Mr. Yushchenko said that he would work toward making Ukraine an open and honest nation. He also said Ukraine would now be a country in which its leaders serve the people, rather than rule them.
Categories:
I'm packing as fast as I can
But before I get to explain the packing, I discovered that if you Google "Kalilily Time," you get access to 8,240 references to something I wrote here. Holey Moley!! (as we teach my grandson to say instead of what we say when he's not around). I guess that's because I've been blogging now for three and half years, with only breaks for short vacations. That's a lot of words. A lot of dissent. I might well be the oldest living, longest/continuously posting blogger in the world. Or maybe not.
I went and Googled myself because I sent an email to an Albany blogger whom I just discovered via b!X. (I don't know why he keeps track of his former home town bloggers, but there's a lot I don't know about that offspring of mine.) Anyway, I figured that since I don't know any Albany bloggers, I'd send an email -- which I did. Then I wondered if that Albany blogger might just Google me to see who the hell I am. Heh. I guess I do get around the blogosphere!
Oh, and the packing. I am the poster child for the Sandwich Generation. On Tuesday, I take my mother downstate to my brother's, where she will stay for a week while I go to my daughter's in Massachusetts to help out for a week while she recuperates from surgery. Packing up my mother is like packing up a toddler, only instead of toys, it's meds. (And toddlers -- especially if it's one's grandson -- are a lot more fun.) Then, before we leave I have to go through.."got your glasses?....got your cane?....got your gloves?....bottle of water?....keys?..... yadayadayada
I also have to set up everything for my cat and make arrangements from a friend to come over and check to make sure that chubby familiar hasn't freaked out from being totally alone for so long a stretch.
I know that there are women who do all of these things and still hold down jobs. I don't know how they do it.
I probably couldn't do it even now without this blog in which to rant, pant, and decant.
Back to packing. After I make supper. Mom doesn't eat unless I make sure she does.
(Groan. As I write this, I think of my two retired friends now in Myrtle Beach, where it's a whole lot warmer than Albany's single digits. Feh!)
Categories:
Again, Bush Misleads into F****ing Folly
From Factcheck.org (a non-partisan consumer advocate effort)
President Bush and Vice President Cheney have told audiences that Social Security faces an $11 trillion shortfall if nothing is done to fix the current system. But they fail to mention that this is over the course of the "infinite future." Over the next 75 years -- still practically a lifetime -- the shortfall is projected to be $3.7 trillion.
The "infinite" projection is one that the American Academy of Actuaries says is likely to mislead the public into thinking the system "is in far worse financial condition than is actually indicated," and therefore should not be used to explain the long-term outlook.
Heh. And even better than that, the following from an email:
The Center for Disease Control has issued a warning about a new virulent strain of sexually transmitted disease. This disease is contracted through dangerous and high risk behavior. The disease is called Gonorrhea lecthim (pronounced "gonna re-elect him").
Many victims have contracted it after having been screwed by the Bush-Cheney-Rove-Ashcroft administration for the past four years and failing to have taken adequate measures to protect themselves.
Cognitive sequellae {sic -- and I couldn't find a definition] of individuals infected with Gonorrhea lecthim include:
Antisocial personality disorder traits; delusions of grandeur with a messianic flavor; cognitive perseveration; inability to incorporate new information into a rigid idie fixee; xenophobia; inability to accept responsibility for actions; and a strong propensity for categorical, all-or-nothing thinking.
This epidemic is out of control. MMWR reports it has already resulted in brain death in over 59,000,000 Americans. Excessive exposure to trailer parks, country gospel music, and yellow ribbon asphyxiation are thought to be contributing factors. New CDC Director Archbishop Burke has ordered a halt to research into the disease after determining the disease is incurable and is merely God's will.
Apparently, however, at least 55,000,000 of us have natural immunity and are poised to lead a brief, but exciting life right after the rapture begins and our afflicted fellow Americans ascend to their eternal reward.
[Editor's Note: I put in the links. I also apologize for the negative associations overlayed on trailer parks, country gospel music, and yellow ribbons, but the whole piece was just too good to ignore. And it sure does seem like those associations with the recent election are valid nonetheless.]
Categories:
Grateful for Good News.
b!X and his Portland Communique made the Wall Street Journal!
Categories:
in mourning for this Dark Thursday
I'm refusing to watch the ritual ending the America I have known and loved.
Categories:
More suggestions for Dark Thursday's protest
A LIST OF ACTIONS FOR JANUARY 20TH (BLACK THURSDAY):
1. Wear a black arm band to signify your sorrow over the election
2. Wear an orange armband the color of the democracy movement in Ukraine) to symbolize your commitment to the democratic principles
3. Visit http://www.sorryeverybody.com and post a picture of yourself saying sorry to the rest of the world for sending the bum back to the white house
4. Visit http://www.apologizeaccepted.com to get much needed boost from the rest of yhe world
5. Visit http://www.costofwar.com to see the insanity, second by second, ticking away....
6. Wear a purple triangle to show your sorrow to your gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or other friends for letting them down
7. Send a thank you note to Michael Moore for bearing the brunt of the right wing's attack machine -- MMFlint@aol.com
8. Stage a walk out at your school
9. Call in sick to work
10. Write a letter to the editor
11. Call and complain to a Fox News advertiser
12. Gather at your local war memorial and hold a candle light vigil for all those in danger in Iraq and for our sorrow at the election results
13. Call the press about it
14. Call your elected representatives and demand they do something to address the voting problems NOW
15. Honor January 20th as "Not One Damn Dime Day" to disappoint major
corporations for their role in the election crisis by not spending one damn dime on their stuff
16. Go to DC and participate in the national protest
17. Go to Crawford, TX and protest
18. Forward this email to EVERYONE (including conservatives) that you know
19. Add any action you can think of to this list
20. Get Up
21. DO SOMETHING JANUARY 20TH
"There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence; and to find that limit, and maintain it against encroachment, is as indispensable to a good condition of human affairs as protection against political despotism. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign." - John Stuart Mill, Essay on Liberty
Categories:
FOR RETAILERS WORRIED ABOUT NODD
Port City Shoes left a comment here worrying about losing much needed money if they closed on NODD Day. Here's what I think might work:
How about if you offer a 20% discount coupon for anyone who stops in on January 20th and DOESN'T BUY ANYTHING.
Make the discount good for a week or a month, or whatever works for you. Put a red, white, and blue sign in the window and say "come in today, January 20, and get a 20%-off discount coupon -- good for two weeks -- as long as you DON'T buy anything today."
It means that you'll have to keep the store open to give out the discount coupons. It also will probably mean that people will come in and ask what it's all about, and you'll have to admit to your politics. It might also mean that people will stop in who might not otherwise.
Categories:
The 34 Bush Administration Scandals
There's so much I want to blog about,including to remind everyone about not buying anything on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. But mom is keeping me distracted from any logical thoughts.
However, please check out the current Truthout article here, which includes these two of my favorite Bush Administration Scandals:
The Medicare Money Scandal
THE SCANDAL: Thomas Scully, Medicare's former administrator, supposedly threatened to fire chief Medicare actuary Richard Foster to prevent him from disclosing the true cost of the 2003 Medicare bill.
THE PROBLEM: Congress voted on the bill believing it would cost $400 billion over 10 years. The program is more likely to cost $550 billion.
THE OUTCOME: Scully denies threatening to fire Foster, as Foster has charged, but admits telling Foster to withhold the higher estimate from Congress. In September 2004, the Government Accountability Office recommended Scully return half his salary from 2003. Inevitably, Scully is now a lobbyist for drug companies helped by the bill.
The Bogus Medicare "Video News Release"
THE SCANDAL: To promote its Medicare bill, the Bush administration produced imitation news-report videos touting the legislation. About 40 television stations aired the videos. More recently, similar videos promoting the administration's education policy have come to light.
THE PROBLEM: The administration broke two laws: One forbidding the use of federal money for propaganda, and another forbidding the unauthorized use of federal funds.
THE OUTCOME: In May 2004, the GAO concluded the administration acted illegally, but the agency lacks enforcement power.
Don't blame me. I didn't vote for him.
ADDENDUM:
AARRGHH. Just to add to the Bushies' penchant for successful progaganda against us masses, the following via the Center for Media and Democracy:
Topics: public relations | democracy
Source: Washington Post, January 14, 2005
"White House allies are launching a market-research project to figure out how to sell" privatizing Social Security, while "Republican marketing and public-relations gurus are building teams of consultants," reports the Washington Post. The effort, led by Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, "will use Bush's campaign-honed techniques of mass repetition, never deviating from the script and using the politics of fear to build support." Groups including Progress for America, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Republican Jewish Coalition are also advocating for privatization. Progress for America's TV ads, which include images of Franklin D. Roosevelt, have been protested by FDR's family. His grandson wrote, "My grandfather would surely oppose the ideas now being promoted by this administration and your organization."
I wish more Senior Citizens were web savvy and learned how to get their info from here instead of the mainstream Conservatively-influenced media.
Categories:
Show Bush that we care about each other's social security future.
Sooner or later, we'll all be eligible for Social Security. I'm lucky, because even though I'm retired and my Social Security check is pretty low, I also have a pension. But there are plenty of Americans out there who, when they retire, will not be able to survive without their meager Social Security checks. These are the same people who would not make enough money during their lifetimes to earmark part of their paychecks each week to go into "private" retirement accounts. Bush's "crisis" is all hype and propaganda, another way for him to help the already financially comfortable and screw the rest of us.
George Bush and Republican leaders have made phasing out Social Security through privatization and massive benefit cuts their top priority for 2005. Members of Congress are choosing sides over the next couple of weeks.
We need to make sure they choose correctly now—before a massive election-style campaign by George Bush and the Wall Street interests gets to them including what might be a $100 million TV ad campaign.
MoveOn.Org is trying to gather 200,000 signatures to present to lawmakers when they return after the inauguration. Go here to sign the petition:
Social Security is a complicated issue, but the basics are really pretty simple:
° Social Security provides monthly benefits to some 44 million Americans who are retired, disabled or the survivor of a deceased parent. It provides most of the income for older Americans--some 64 percent of their support. It has lifted generations of seniors out of poverty.
° Social Security is not in crisis. That is an outright lie perpetrated in order to create the urgency for radical changes. Under conservative forecasts, the long-term challenges in Social Security do not manifest themselves until 2042. Even then Social Security has 70 percent of needed funds. That shortfall is smaller than the amount needed in 1983, the last time we overhauled Social Security. George Bush's Social Security crisis-talk is an effort to create a specter of doom -- just like the weapons of mass destruction claim in Iraq.
° Phasing out Social Security and replacing it with privatized accounts means one thing: massive cuts in monthly benefits for everybody. Social Security privatization requires diverting taxes used to pay current benefits into privatized accounts invested in risky stocks. Without that money Social Security benefits will inevitably be cut -- some proposals even cut benefits of current retirees. These benefit cuts are inevitable, since diverting Social Security money into privatized accounts means less money to pay current and future benefits.
° Every serious privatization proposal raises the Social Security retirement age to 70. That might be fine if you're a Washington special interest lobbyist but it is incredibly unfair to blue-collar Americans with tough, physical jobs, or for African Americans and Latinos with lower life expectancies.
° Privatization means gambling with your retirement security. There is probably an appropriate place for a little stock market risk in retirement planning -- but it isn't Social Security. Privatization exposes your entire retirement portfolio to stock market risks -- and the risk that you'll outlive any of your savings at retirement. You can't outlive your Social Security benefit.
° So who does benefit? Wall Street. Giant financial services firms have been salivating for decades over the prospect of taking over Social Security. Wall Street would make billions of dollars in profit by managing the privatized accounts -- money that would come directly from your benefits.
° Action is urgently needed today. President Bush and Republican leaders in Congress are joining forces with the financial services industry for a major campaign to convince the public there is a major crisis and pressure members of Congress to vote for privatization. Action is needed now before it is too late.
Please sign MoveOn’s petition to protect Social Security.
To repeat what I posted here that I got from an Op Ed piece in the NY Times:
The administration expects us to believe that drastic change is needed, and needed right away, because of the looming cost of paying for the baby boomers' retirement.
The administration expects us not to notice, however, that the supposed solution would do nothing to reduce that cost. Even with the most favorable assumptions, the benefits of privatization wouldn't kick in until most of the baby boomers were long gone. For the next 45 years, privatization would cost much more money than it saved.
Advocates of privatization almost always pretend that all we have to do is borrow a bit of money up front, and then the system will become self-sustaining. The Wehner memo talks of borrowing $1 trillion to $2 trillion "to cover transition costs." Similar numbers have been widely reported in the news media.
But that's just the borrowing over the next decade. Privatization would cost an additional $3 trillion in its second decade, $5 trillion in the decade after that and another $5 trillion in the decade after that. By the time privatization started to save money, if it ever did, the federal government would have run up around $15 trillion in extra debt.
Don't let Bush succeed in overwhelming us, yet again, with his drivel and dung.
Categories:
An Open Letter to Bill Buckingham of Dover, PA
I'm overwhelmed these days with how half of my fellow Americans are so willing to accept and proliferate factoids as facts, how they are publicly forcing the confusion of faith and science. Having a president who does just that, of course, somehow legitimizes the stupidity of doing that.
I thinking specifically of something that's quoted at Salon.com in a disturbing piece on The New Monkey Trial. (You have to be a member to read the whole article, or you can watch a commercial first and then read it for free.)
The lengthy feature article begins with:
It was an ordinary springtime school board meeting in the bedroom community of Dover, Pa. The high school needed new biology textbooks, and the science department had recommended Kenneth Miller and Joseph Levine's "Biology." "It was a fantastic text," said Carol "Casey" Brown, 57, a self-described Goldwater Republican and the board's senior member. "It just followed our curriculum so beautifully."
But Bill Buckingham, a new board member who'd recently become chair of the curriculum committee, had an objection. "Biology," he said, was "laced with Darwinism." He wanted a book that balanced theories of evolution with Christian creationism, and he was willing to turn his town into a cultural battlefield to get it.
"This country wasn't founded on Muslim beliefs or evolution," Buckingham, a stocky, gray-haired man who wears a red, white and blue crucifix pin on his lapel, said at the meeting. "This country was founded on Christianity, and our students should be taught as much."
WHHOOOAA! Stop right there, Mr. Bill Buckingham!! That's a factoid. That's not a fact. Do your research. Oh, wait. Research. That's like science -- investigation, analysis, hypothesis... You'd rather just not be bothered with the facts because you know what you believe. Oh my, what would our Founding Fathers say to that!
Well, whether you want to believe them or not, these are the facts about the origins of our country and our system of democracy, and they had very little to do with the fundamental tenets of Christianity:
1. Let's begin with our Library of Congress exhibit on "Religion and the Founding of the American Republic," which states:
Although they were victims of religious persecution in Europe, the Puritans supported the Old World theory that sanctioned it, the need for uniformity of religion in the state. Once in control in New England, they sought to break "the very neck of Schism and vile opinions." The "business" of the first settlers, a Puritan minister recalled in 1681, "was not Toleration, but [they] were professed enemies of it." Puritans expelled dissenters from their colonies, a fate that in 1636 befell Roger Williams and in 1638 Anne Hutchinson, America's first major female religious leader. Those who defied the Puritans by persistently returning to their jurisdictions risked capital punishment, a penalty imposed on four Quakers between 1659 and 1661.
In other words, those early righteous Christian settlers became the kind of persecutors they were running away from. Sort of what the Christian fundamentalists are have become these days, it seems to me.
2. And then, we all know what those righteous Puritans did to those poor old women -- the community healers, helpers, herbalists, wise women. Rather then taking a scientific approach to investigating what was going on, those faithful Puritans decided that these women must be witches, right? Just some more persecutions by True Believers of those who wouldn't conform to their particular faith-based boxes. But that's another long and horrible story that too few fundamentalists really understand and/or want to believe.
3. And let's not forget what our Christian Cavalry did to the Lakota Indians at Wounded Knee (How about having young kids learn those bloody facts when they study American history? Or are you afraid that knowing the facts would that shake their Christian beliefs?)
Read about the Massacre here:
By August of 1890, the U.S. government was fearful that the Ghost Dance was actually a war dance and, in time, the dancers would turn to rioting. By November, the War Department sent troops to occupy the Lakota camps at Pine Ridge and Rosebud, convinced that the dancers were preparing to do battle against the government. In reality, the Indians were bracing themselves to defend their rights to continue performing the sacred ceremonies. In reaction to the military encampment, the Lakotas planned various strategies to avoid confrontation with the soldiers, but the military was under orders to isolate Ghost Dance leaders from their devotees.
But because of the stupidity and ignorance of the American Cavalry:
With only their bare hands to fight back, the Indians tried to defend themselves, but the incident deteriorated further into bloody chaos, and the 350 unarmed Indians were outmatched and outnumbered by the nearly 500 U.S. soldiers.
Well, Mr. Buckingham, you might ask how to we know that's true. And I say to you, Mr. Buckingham, that historical research is like scientific research, and the information quoted is from research done at Bowling Green University, if you want to check that out. Wounded Knee. Abu Ghraib. Ah, the righteousness of the American military! We are what we believe, aren't we, Mr. Buckingham?
3. Now let's get to the real meat of the matter: Our "Christian" Founding Fathers and how they came up with the idea of a participatory Democracy. (Is your school system teaching these facts?) Now, pay close attention to the following, Mr. Buckhingham. This is REALLY important:
Some people today assert that the United States government came from Christian foundations. They argue that our political system represents a Christian ideal form of government and that Jefferson, Madison, et al, had simply expressed Christian values while framing the Constitution. If this proved true, then we should have a wealth of evidence to support it, yet just the opposite proves the case.
Although, indeed, many of America's colonial statesmen practiced Christianity, our most influential Founding Fathers broke away from traditional religious thinking. The ideas of the Great Enlightenment that began in Europe had begun to sever the chains of monarchical theocracy. These heretical European ideas spread throughout early America. Instead of relying on faith, people began to use reason and science as their guide. The humanistic philosophical writers of the Enlightenment, such as Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire, had greatly influenced our Founding Fathers and Isaac Newton's mechanical and mathematical foundations served as a grounding post for their scientific reasoning.
A few Christian fundamentalists attempt to convince us to return to the Christianity of early America, yet according to the historian, Robert T. Handy, "No more than 10 percent-- probably less-- of Americans in 1800 were members of congregations."
The Founding Fathers, also, rarely practiced Christian orthodoxy. Although they supported the free exercise of any religion, they understood the dangers of religion. Most of them believed in deism and attended Freemasonry lodges. According to John J. Robinson, "Freemasonry had been a powerful force for religious freedom." Freemasons took seriously the principle that men should worship according to their own conscious. Masonry welcomed anyone from any religion or non-religion, as long as they believed in a Supreme Being. Washington, Franklin, Hancock, Hamilton, Lafayette, and many others accepted Freemasonry.
The Constitution reflects our founders views of a secular government, protecting the freedom of any belief or unbelief. The historian, Robert Middlekauff, observed, "the idea that the Constitution expressed a moral view seems absurd. There were no genuine evangelicals in the Convention, and there were no heated declarations of Christian piety."
Also included on the site linked to above are quotes from various Founding Fathers distancing themselves from the restrictions of faith-based government, such as this quote from James Madison:
Called the father of the Constitution, Madison had no conventional sense of Christianity. In 1785, Madison wrote in his Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments:
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."
"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not."
4. And, finally, Mr. Buckingham, did you know that the Founding Fathers met with the leaders of the Iroquois Six Nations so that they could pick their brains about how their proven "participatory democracy" was set up and practiced?
On June 11, 1776 while the question of independence was being debated, the visiting Iroquois chiefs were formally invited into the meeting hall of the Continental Congress. There a speech was delivered, in which they were addressed as "Brothers" and told of the delegates' wish that the "friendship" between them would "continue as long as the sun shall shine" and the "waters run." The speech also expressed the hope that the new Americans and the Iroquois act "as one people, and have but one heart."[18] After this speech, an Onondaga chief requested permission to give Hancock an Indian name. The Congress graciously consented, and so the president was renamed "Karanduawn, or the Great Tree." With the Iroquois chiefs inside the halls of Congress on the eve of American Independence, the impact of Iroquois ideas on the founders is unmistakable. History is indebted to Charles Thomson, an adopted Delaware, whose knowledge of and respect for American Indians is reflected in the attention that he gave to this ceremony in the records of the Continental Congress.[19]
So, Mr. Buckingham, if you want to refine your school's curricula, how about starting with revising the American history course so that your students learn the truth about their country's history and the intentions of our Founding Fathers to avoid just the kind of misinformed pressure that you're putting on your school district to teach the faith-based Creationism as if it were a proven fact.
When I taught eighth grade English back in the seventies, I taught a unit on Mythology, in which I included the "creation" stories from as many different cultures as I could identify. We compared and contrasted the stories, and, I have to admit, the kids began asking questions. They asked me if I believed in god and I told them that it was my private business whether I did our not and had nothing to do with what we were learning about in class. If they had questions about their own family's religious beliefs, they would need to go back to their families and ministers/priests/rabbis and talk to them about it.
Education should teach kids to question, to research, to investigate, to analyze, to hypothesize, to look for evidence, to compare evidences, to confer with experts, to question, question, question. And then reach logical conclusions. That's the way to avoid getting sucked in by Saddams and Al Qaedas, by cults and conmen. Somewhere in their learning journeys, if they decide to say "Well, there are still things I believe in that I can't prove," that's fine, too. But they will understand the difference between fact and faith. And there is a big -- although not incompatible -- difference.
The Founders of this country understood the importance of distinguishing fact from faith. If it were possible, I'm sure they'd be spinning in their graves today, Mr. Buckingham, furious about how people like you are trying to turn their democratic hopes and ideals into drivel and dung.
Categories:
nothing good to say
There's always something good to say about the Little Picture -- toddler grandson using words like "amazing" and "pulchritudinous" in the correct context (love those Nick Jr. programs). My mom, for a few moments, forgettng who I am and then remembering that she forgot and laughing about it.
But the Big Picture continues to get more and more dismal. Others are chronicling in detail the insanity, the deceit, the immorality of the Bush administration, so I don't have to try to do it here, except to link you to:
Molly Ivins, who carefully points out the outright lies the Bushies are spreading about the Iraq elections, the future of Social Security, the supposed increase in employment, and the health threat of perchlorate, a toxic rocket fuel ingredient, in the water etc. etc.
And she adds
Now, in addition to the regular misleading, fudging, distorting and phony statistics games, we're getting actual covert propaganda, and dammittohell, they're making us pay for it. A quarter of a million bucks to a right-wing commentator to talk up No Child Left Behind. Why? Distributing video "news" releases to television stations made and paid for by the government, but not identified as such. It's not enough that Bush has the bulliest pulpit on earth, he has to sneak his message across with government propaganda? What the hell is this?
Then there's Thom Hartmann's historically accurate reminder that the Bushies effort to appoint Gonzales
is one of the more visible parts of a much larger campaign the Bush administration has embarked on to reverse not only 229 years of the American rule of law regarding the rights of average citizens, but nearly eight centuries of human rights that go back to an epic moment in 1215 on a meadow by the River Thames.
Proving the outright Bushy lies regarding the plan to privatize Social Security, Paul Krugman points out:
It's the standard Bush administration tactic: invent a fake crisis to bully people into doing what you want. "For the first time in six decades," the memo says, "the Social Security battle is one we can win." One thing I haven't seen pointed out, however, is the extent to which the White House expects the public and the media to believe two contradictory things.
The administration expects us to believe that drastic change is needed, and needed right away, because of the looming cost of paying for the baby boomers' retirement.
The administration expects us not to notice, however, that the supposed solution would do nothing to reduce that cost. Even with the most favorable assumptions, the benefits of privatization wouldn't kick in until most of the baby boomers were long gone. For the next 45 years, privatization would cost much more money than it saved.
Advocates of privatization almost always pretend that all we have to do is borrow a bit of money up front, and then the system will become self-sustaining. The Wehner memo talks of borrowing $1 trillion to $2 trillion "to cover transition costs." Similar numbers have been widely reported in the news media.
But that's just the borrowing over the next decade. Privatization would cost an additional $3 trillion in its second decade, $5 trillion in the decade after that and another $5 trillion in the decade after that. By the time privatization started to save money, if it ever did, the federal government would have run up around $15 trillion in extra debt.
Add to all of that the evidence coming out during the trials of the soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse. Stacking naked prisoners up like cheerleaders. Oh yeah! Great American sports tradition.
And, more car bombs as the people Bush tried to tell us he was liberating continue to let us know that they hate us more than they hated Saddam. Way to go, Georgie.
It would be great if I could retreat somewhere into the little picture and take refuge. But I can't even do that. As I sat here writing this, my mom walked in three times to complain that her sixty-year old sewing machine still isn't working, even though we had it repaired and tuned up last month. Three times I went over to her apartment and re-set what she set up incorrectly. It's not the sixty-year old machine that's not working. It's her almost-89 year old brain. And it would make my life so much more simple if she would just admit it and not keep insisting it's everyone's fault but her own.
Hey, you offspring of mine. If I get like that, shoot me. Or, like the Eskimos supposedly used to do, leave me outside in the freezing cold and let me quiety slip into eternal and peacegiving hypothermic sleep.
Hmm. Any chance someone can lock Dumbya out of the White House during some upcoming blizzard?
Categories:
from passion to fashion
I taped the last hour of the People's Choice awards because I wanted to see Michael Moore accept the best movie award for his Fareneheit 9/11. Actually, what I did was run the tape on reverse, so that I wouldn't have to waste time watching any of the rest of it; I just stopped when I got to Martin Sheen and Moore.
But watching it all devolve, I also noticed that Mel Gibson got the award for best movie drama. It's the fashion these days among both those who believe blindly and those who blind with belief to flaunt the flag of fundamentalism. So, for me, Gibson gets the Flimsy Fashion Award.
Moore, on the other hand, passionate and savvy at the same time, played the patriot that he is. So, for me, Moore gets the Passionate Patriot Award.
On Jay Leno the other night (you can watch the video clip here thanks to Norm Jensen), Moore talked about his current movie in progress -- all about our screwed up health care system, especially our HMOs and the drug companies that just love the system the way it is.
Heh. You just have to watch the clip and listen to Moore talk about the drug companies already starting to have "Moore drills" -- akin to fire drills -- so that if anyone seems Moore approaching the premises, they can take the necessary precautions. I don't know it that's true, but it's a great rumor to spread.
Categories:
IOKIYAR
How did we find ourselves living in a bad novel? It was not ever thus. Hypocrites, cranks and scoundrels have always been with us, on both sides of the aisle. But 9/11 created an environment some liberals summarize with the acronym Iokiyar: it's O.K. if you're a Republican.
From Paul Krugman's Op Ed piece, "Worse Than Fiction," in which he explains:
The public became unwilling to believe bad things about those who claim to be defending the nation against terrorism. And the hypocrites, cranks and scoundrels of the right, empowered by the public's credulity, have come out in unprecedented force.
Apologists for the administration would like us to forget all about the Kerik affair, but Bernard Kerik perfectly symbolizes the times we live in. Like Rudolph Giuliani and, yes, President Bush, he wasn't a hero of 9/11, but he played one on TV. And like Mr. Giuliani, he was quick to cash in, literally, on his undeserved reputation.
Yesterday, author Gerald Pomper was interviewed on my local NPR station about his new book, Ordinary Heroes and American Democracy. Pomper's definition of "hero" is an ordinary person doing his/her job extraordinarly well at a moment in history that positively affects that moment in history. He cites, for example, the firefighters at the 9/11 scene.
Krugman is right about the bad novel that America has become, and I agree with him that:
The principal objection to making Mr. Gonzales attorney general is that doing so will tell the world that America thinks it's acceptable to torture people. But his confirmation will also be a statement about ethics
And on tv last night, a commerical for some violent interactive mercinary game shouts: Blow 'em up! Blow 'em up! Blow the crap out of 'em!
This is America today. But IOKIYAR
Categories:
A Child's Wisdom
I remember once someone speculating that perhaps we are born with all the wisdom that it's possible to have but we lose some with each passing day.
I think of this because my two-and-a-half-year-old grandson. Lex, often seems to "get it" right away.
For example, yesterday, as he and his mother were in their backyard,they saw a cardinal land on top of a bush right in front of them. They had a great view of the bird, and all of a sudden, it jerked its head in their direction. Speaking his mother's thoughts, Lex burst into a grin and said, "It's looking at you!" Then the bird flew away. So his mom explained that she thought he might be
afraid of them. To which Lex replied, "Cuz he doesn't know you".
All day long he as he walked around, Lex repeated: "The car-di-nal was looking at you!" And then he'd shake his head and put his hands out in a shrug, "but he didn't know you."
Lex calls dreaming "remembering." So he'll say, "Lex remember this book last night in sleeping." I just think that's so cool!
Categories:
The ribbon madness.
You've got to read Tild~'s take on the magnetic bumper ribbon fad. She's over on Blog Sisters, here and here.
Categories:
still no certainty that Bush was duly elected
The following from here:
Dear Members of the U.S. Senate,
Welcome back! The 109th session of Congress has just begun. I'm watching you on C-SPAN right now and you all look so snap-happy and clean-faced. It's like the first day of school all over again, isn't it?
I have a favor to ask of you. Something isn't right with the vote from Ohio. Seems a lot of people didn't get to vote. And those who did, thousands of theirs weren't counted.
Does that seem right to you? I'm just asking. Forget about partisan politics for a moment and ask yourself if there is a more basic right, in a democracy, than the right of the people to vote AND have ALL their votes counted.
Now, I know a lot of you wish this little problem of Ohio would just go away. And many of you who wish this are Democrats. You just want to move on (no pun intended!). I can't say I blame you. It's rough to lose two elections in a row when the first one you actually won and the second one you should have won. And it seems this time around, about 3 million more Americans preferred to continue the war in Iraq and give the rich more tax breaks than those who didn't. No sense living in denial about that.
But something isn't right in Ohio and more than a dozen members of the House of Representatives believe it is worth investigating.
So on Thursday at 1:00pm, Rep. John Conyers of Detroit will rise and object to the vote count in Ohio. According to the laws of this land, he will not be allowed to speak unless at least one of you -- one member of the United States Senate -- agrees to let him have the floor.
A very embarrassing moment during the last session of Congress occurred in the first week when none of you would allow the members of Congress who were black to have the floor to object to the Florida vote count. Remember that? You thought no one would ever notice, didn't you? You certainly lucked out that night when the networks decided not to show how you shut down every single member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
No such luck this year. Everyone now knows about that moment of shame. Thank you? You’re welcome.
But this Thursday, at 1:00pm, you will have a chance to redeem yourself.
Congressman Conyers and a dozen other members of Congress have some serious questions about how the Republican secretary of state in Ohio (who was also the state’s co-chair of Bush’s reelection campaign) conducted the election on November 2. The list of possible offenses of how voters were denied access to the polls and how over a hundred thousand of their votes have yet to be counted is more than worthy of your consideration. It may not change the outcome, but you have a supreme responsibility to make sure that EVERY vote is counted. Who amongst you would disagree with that?
If you would like to read more about the specific charges, I ask that you read these two links: “Senators Should Object to Ohio Vote” —by Jesse Jackson and “Ten Preliminary Reasons Why the Bush Vote Does Not Compute, and Why Congress Must Investigate Rather Than Certify the Electoral College”. I am asking everyone on my mailing list to send you a letter joining me in this call to you to do your job and investigate what happened before you certify the vote.
It only takes one member of the House and one member of the Senate to stop the acceptance of the Electoral College vote and force a legitimate debate and investigation. Do you know why this provision is set in stone in our nation’s laws? I mean, why would we allow just two officials in a body of 535 members to throw a wrench into the works? The law exists because nothing is more sacred than the integrity of the ballot box and if there is ANY possibility of fraud or incompetence, then it MUST be addressed. Because if we don't have the vote, what are we left with?
C'mon Senators! Especially you Democrats. Here is your one shining moment of courage. Will you allow the gavel to come down on our black members of Congress once again? Or will you stand up for their right to object?
We will all be watching.
Yours,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com
I reprinted Moore's open letter in its entirely in case my readers are not on his email list or don't check his website or (horrors!) don't like him and won't read anything he writes. As usual, though, he comes through, loud and clear.
UPDATE: Via Keith Olbermann's weblog at MSNBC:
...it appeared all but certain in early evening Wednesday that House Democrats had secured the support of up to half a dozen Senators to formally challenge the Electoral College slate from Ohio, when the votes are opened before a joint session of Congress...
and
The ad hoc group formed by Representative John Conyers of Michigan has also today published its staff report, concluding that before, during, and after the election in Ohio, many state laws may have been broken, in every area ranging from the allocation of voting machines, election day "anomalies," and the recount. It recommended a formal Congressional inquiry, and additional legislation to reform voting laws.
Categories:
our less-than-brilliant president.
Via Norm Jensen's blog, a telling video clip.
Meanwhile, from ABC online:
The Bush administration is preparing plans for the possible lifetime detention of suspected terrorists, including hundreds whom the Government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts....
Don't look at me. I didn't vote for him.
Categories:
Some Dissident Praise for Kalilily
The following is why blogging keeps me blogging.
I got an email today from a Dr. Lilian Friedberg which said:
Hello Elaine,
I recently discovered your website, and was so delighted (and sincerely impressed with very good content) that I mention it in my most recent column, "Voices of the Peoples" at the ClarkPost:
Here is the URL, this month's column is called and includes a paragraph or two about your site:
The Death of Democracy in America: The Foundering Fathers and the White Roots of Peace
I do hope you'll understand my discussion of your site in the appreciative and playful spirit it is intended. It is a wonderful place to visit.
Another dissenting Crone,
Lilian Friedberg, PhD
Cognitive Dissident
Dr. Friedberg's piece is long but worth reading for the well-researched perspective she gives not only on the death of democracy in America, but also on its origins and the misconceptions most people have about its development.
Of course, to me, the best parts are what she says about Kalilily, which I post here with a big dissident smile on my face:
To my cognitively dissonant delight—one ray of inspiration did appear on an otherwise dim string of search results which led me to the weblog of Elaine of Kalilily, Self-Proclaimed Resident Crone of Blogdom, who also describes herself as a "True Blue American," and whose blog entry for November 5, 2004, "My Blue America," glimmers with subtly placed signs of hope. The real gems are buried in the links she supplies: truths debunking myths of Puritans fleeing religious persecution only to export it to the colonies in the form of domestic tyranny abroad, truths about witch-burnings, and about the foundational principle of genocide underlying the birth of this nation—on a link that's worth singling out here, since it's rather cleverly cached behind a hyperlinked reference to the military that benignly obscures the page’s content.
Genocide and The American Indian Peoples
Nor did I leave Kalilily's site without finding the scoop I was looking for on the founding fathers, in particular as they relate to the third part of this essay, The White Roots of Peace—but we’ll return to that in a moment.
Emoticons cannot express my response to the quality and truth content of these treasures on a site that looked, at first blue blush, to be an exercise in kitsch- and cupcake-artistry. Just goes to show, never judge a blog by its clip art.
About the time I hit the genocide link, I went back and, with a quizzed "who-the-hell-is-this-person" look, and clicked on the "ABOUT ME" link. Voila!: My faith in the American people restored. At the risk of offending the self-proclaimed Crone of blogdom, I must admit what first came to mind: "Well, I’ll be damned," I thought, "it’s just a little old retired grandma sitting there raising hell at the keyboard!" (That wouldn't be an altogether fair assessment of a rather accomplished career woman and crafty writer who truly has earned her Crone-Coronation, so I invite the reader read site the rest of the story, which includes a great pic of the author.
Rest of the Story
And it was on Elaine of Kalilily's site that I found one of the spokes in the wheel I was hoping to "uninvent"
The people of the Six Nations, also known by the French term, Iroquois Confederacy, call themselves the Hau de no sau nee (ho dee noe sho nee) meaning People Building a Long House. Located in the northeastern region of North America, originally the Six Nations was five and included the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. The sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, migrated into Iroquois country in the early eighteenth century. Together these peoples comprise the oldest living participatory democracy on earth. Their story, and governance truly based on the consent of the governed, contains a great deal of life-promoting intelligence for those of us not familiar with this area of American history. The original United States representative democracy, fashioned by such central authors as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, drew much inspiration from this confederacy of nations. In our present day, we can benefit immensely, in our quest to establish anew a government truly dedicated to all life's liberty and happiness much as has been practiced by the Six Nations for over 800 hundred years.
The Six Nations and the Oldest Living Participatory Democracy on Earth.
[UPDATE: After contemplating the Dr.'s reference to "cupcake artistry," I decided to clean up my kitsch and make my site look more the way it did when I started -- not so clip-arty. Less is more, right?]
---------------------
And so, on this second day of a new year, with a week facing me probably filled with rounds of doctor's visits trying to figure out what's going on with my mom's swollen lips and with trying to get ready to go out and stay with my daughter later in the month while she recuperates from some surgery (now, that I don't mind doing because I get to be with my toddler grandson) -- as I sit here feeling sorry for myself for missing what's supposed to be my Golden Years -- I get the message. Thank you, Dr. Friedberg.
Blogging keeps me going. Keeps me golden. At least it keeps my brain from getting too tarnished.
Much of my original interest in the the legacies left to this country by the Six Nations was stirred up while I worked in the New York State Museum, where the histories of the Hau de no sau nee are preserved and revered. It was there I learned about the status and influence that women, especially older women, held in those Native American communities. Among all of the important democractic legacies of the Six Nations that our American system has discarded is the fundamental role of the Clan Mother, the Crone. Dr. Friedberg explores those legacies in her "Death of Democracy" article.
If you want to read more of what Dr. Friedberg, my newly discovered "sister-in-croney-dissidence." writes, check out the following:
Election Results Challenge Our Faith in America and Its People
An Open Letter to the NYT (and by Implication) the Rest of the US Media Who Are Trying to Whitewash the Election Scandal
Worse than Watergate? Yep. Worse Yet. Worse than Hitler
I Love the Smell of Cold Turkey in the Morning: A Week in the Life of
America
God Bless America! Letters from the Heartland: Open Letters to George W. Bush October 14 - Nov 3, 2004
---------------------
And, speaking of "golden," I thought these were supposed to be my Golden Years. Right.
Great op ed piece in my local paper today by Silvio Laccetti, a professor who wrote the piece for the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. I can't seem to find it anywhere else on the web, at least not yet.
Here are just some excerpts from "A Sandwich Generation Reaches Its Golden Years:"
We are the smallest generation. Once called the silent generation, we are the pivotal generation of the last 60 years. We are the rock 'n' roll generation, born from 1940 through 1945. My generation. This New Year, 2005, the first of our number arrives at the golden age of 65.
Sandwiched between the greatest generation and the baby boomers, we occupy our own high place in America's social history. We have served as foundation builders in key areas of American life, and we have cemented the social structure of the last 35 years. Our generation is recognized by many names.
Of course, as the rock 'n' roll generation, we discovered and popularized the music that radically changed popular culture. In the early '50s, proto-rock 'n' rollers found the moondog music of black artists on obscure R&B stations. "Rock" became a cultural attitude, infusing the arts, theater and even politics. We were the first modern generation of rebels, albeit rebels without a cause. We said rock 'n' roll would never die and, for better or worse, it hasn't.
Clearly, my generation is also the atomic generation, closely identified with the 1950s and their epochal changes. Domestic joy and tranquillity contrasted with apocalyptic visions of annihilation.
[snip]
Because we passed through so many mini-revolutions, we were also the cement that binds much of our society together. We went from the 78 rpm record to the DVD recorder disc, from the typewriter to the Palm Pilot.
[snip]
Forty years later, it's 2005 and most of us are staying alive (oops). Thanks to new attitudes toward seniors and second careers, and with continued help from medical advances, we remain an undeniable part of America's future. As veterans of four decades of change in which America became the sole world superpower we still have much to contribute. We will not fade away.
Yup. There's a dance in the ol' dame yet.
Categories:
Is this what the rest of the year will be like?
So, I go to wake my mom up at 11 this morning, and I realize that her lips look like Goldie Hawn's in "First Wives Club" -- you know, too much collagen for the lips in question.
My mother has no other symptoms, just swollen lips. OK. An allergic reaction, I figure. But to what? We ate the same food yesterday. Unless she snacked on something. Or is it one of her medications? She's on an antibiotic for an inflected and swollen gland on the side of her face. Or is it all part of the same syndrome? Or something else entirely, like a bug bite of some sort?
I give her two Benedryl, put her back in bed. Take her off all meds except for her heart. I'll call her doctor tomorrow if she's not better.
Is this the way it's going to be from now on? Some kind of crisis at least once a week? Is this what the rest of the year will be like? Is this what the rest of her life will be like?
Happy New Year.
Categories:
Science Knows
Not only does science know why the tsunami happened, it can give precious hours of warning. If a small fraction of the tax breaks handed out to churches, mosques and synagogues had been diverted into an early warning system, tens of thousands of people, now dead, would have been moved to safety.
Let's get up off our knees, stop cringing before bogeymen and virtual fathers, face reality, and help science to do something constructive about human suffering.
The above from The Guardian via Norm Jensen's One Good Move.
Also, via Jensen: William Pitt has started his own weblog at Truthout.
AND
an interesting discussion on "God is an Asshole."
Categories:
Poets Don't Know
According to a piece by columnist Matt Miller, not knowing, and not denying that they don't know, is what drives poets. Not knowing and denying that they don't know is what drives politicians and ideologues.
Miller quotes poet and Nobel Prize winner Wislawa Szymborska:
Szymborska's response to the ideologues is that "knowledge that doesn't lead to new questions quickly dies out." In her wonderful phrase, "it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life." And, as history has shown, from the Crusades to the Holocaust, such dogmatism can pose a lethal threat to society.
"This is why," Szymborska says, "I value that little phrase 'I don't know' so highly. It's small, but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include spaces within us as well as the outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended."
If Isaac Newton, Marie Curie or countless others had not constantly said to themselves, "I don't know," Szymborska argues, most of what we consider progress would have eluded us. For example, what if, instead of being inspired to think about gravity, an unquestioning Isaac Newton simply gobbled up his fallen apples?
Thus Szymborska insists, in words that have wider application, that "poets, if they're genuine, must ... keep repeating 'I don't know.' Each poem marks an answer to this statement, but as soon as the final period hits the page, the poet begins to hesitate, starts to realize that this particular answer was pure makeshift, absolutely inadequate. So poets keep on trying, and sooner or later the consecutive results of their self-dissatisfaction are clipped together" as their legacy.
Substitute the words "policymaker" for "poet" and "policy" for "poem" and the political lesson is clear. In solving human problems - the purpose, after all, of politics - unmerited certainty is the road to ruin. It doesn't take a genius to see that our problems are complex. Yet when it comes to stimulating the economy or planning for the day after in Iraq, how often have you heard a politician admit, "I just don't know"? Our leaders pretend they have "answers" because they think we expect them to act that way. Often we do...... Maybe if our leaders became a little more like poets we'd all muddle forward better together.
I liked my life better when I had the space and time to do, according to Szymborska (as reported by Miller), what poets do:
"Someone sits at a table or lies on a sofa while staring motionless at a wall or ceiling. Once in a while this person writes down several lines, only to cross out one of them 15 minutes later, and then another hour passes, during which nothing happens".
"Their work," she writes, "becomes one continuous adventure ... A swarm of new questions emerge from every problem they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous 'I don't know.'"
As a caregiver, there are so many, many things I have to know, have to make decisions about, keep track of. I don't have the "disposable" time to not know, to embark on the poet's great adventure.
Today begins a new year, but today is like yesterday, for me, confined by tediuim and details and interruptions. I have made some resolutions, though.
I'm going to spend one day a week throwing things away, cleaning out those parts of my life that I can clean out. The clutter of things that I really don't know if I'll ever need again. If I don't know, I'll let it go.
I'm going to stop snacking at night. Oprah said that's the key to losing weight. But that's not the reason. Getting the nightime acid reflux under control, that's the reason. Losing weight will be a bonus.
I will continue to stand against dogmatism, which is easy in the "big picture" but a lot harder in the "little picture" because my mother, who some friends of mine once titled "The Pope of Yonkers," is dogmatic about just about everthing.
Even if I'm not writing poetry, I will read more of it. I will make Szymborska's words my mantra:
I don't know. I don't know why. I don't know if. I don't know who. I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Categories:
