At brunch today with my women friends, after the unavoidable litanies of personal aches and pains, we, as usual, drifted into complaining about politics and government. Someone mentioned proposed legislation that would make it illegal to fast forward through commercials.
What!! No way, right?
Way.
Do you like fast-forwarding through commercials on a television program you’ve recorded? How much do you like it? Enough to go to jail if you’re caught doing it? If a new copyright and intellectual property omnibus bill sitting on Congress’s desk passes, that may be the choice you’ll face.
The IPPA (Intellectual Property Protection Act) is one of those Congressional mish-mashes of babies, bathwater, and slop. I have to believe that it won’t get passed without some careful scrubbing.
The following is enough to trigger some truly vocal outrage:
Here’s more of what’s included: a provision that would make it a felony to record a movie in a theater for future distribution on a peer-to-peer network. IPPA would also criminalize the currently legal act of using the sharing capacity of iTunes, Apple’s popular music software program; the legislation equates that act with the indiscriminate file sharing on popular peer-to-peer programs. Currently, with iTunes, users can opt to share a playlist with others on their network. IPPA doesn’t differentiate this innocuous—and Apple sanctioned—act from the promiscuous sharing that happens when someone makes a music collection available to five million strangers on Kazaa or Grokster.
Are we scared enough yet?
Are we mad enough yet?
Well, yeah. But scared and mad enough to do what?
Do we hunker down, guard our privacy with our lives, hide in our attics with our remote controls and signal jamming devices? Do we form underground guerilla groups to share files? Do we stand shoulder to shoulder, backs to the technological tidal wave on which the whims of a gestapo state are riding?
We can allow government to corral us in with the magics of technology, allow them to fence us in with our own fears of being somehow “exposed”, or….
or what?
What if we all lived our lives out in the open. No secrets; no stigma. What if we shared our information about our DNA, medical histories, therapies, and tribulations etc, (you know, like lots of us do on the web already).
What if we redirected all of the energies that we put into hiding the things we have been programmed to feel are “nobody’s business” and free oursevles to unite against the fascism that’s already taking its toll on our lives. If we allow our “elected representatives” to keep doing the crappy job they’ve been doing, we are going to wind up wearing identifying patches on our sleeves and making sure that our “papers” are in order and on our persons at all times. (Not that those things won’t prevent our being hauled off to detainment camps.)
This government has become the enemy of its people.
It is all so truly REVOLTING.
UPDATE:
Thanks to Doug at The Alders (see comment to this post) for pointing to the truth of the matter.
I guess I have to make the effort and read the fine print of primary source documents. (Even though it’s so much more fun to ride a rant off someone else’s misguided assertions, it’s more important to learn — and share — what’s true.)
But I still think the government of my country deserves some revolting.

Speaking of emotion health, to my way of thinking both Theodore Roszak and Carl Anthony are whackjobs of the first water, hearing — as they claim to — the lamentable cries of the wounded Earth. Uh-huh. But surely Anthony is the lesser nutcase — the less deluded about the “spirituality” of Nature-with-a-capital-N, and a whole lot hipper with respect to swamps.
The above from Chris Locke’s new blog, in which he continues his personal wrestling match with the demons of Celtic spiritualiy/mythology. (Yes, I still read his blog/s just for stuff like the above.)
Oddly enough, his rant about the fallacies of linking environmental health (both metaphorical and real) with personal/emotional/psychological health is timely — not because he’s right, but because of the opposite approach reflected in the work of the newly annointed Nobel Peace Laureate.
From an Associated Press article in my local paper today (which, for some reason, does not appear in its online version):
To the beat of African drums, Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai received her Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, telling the audience of royals, celebrities and diplomats that protecting the world’s resources is linked to halting violence.”
[snip]
Maathai, 64, warned that the world remained under attack from disease, deforestation and war.
“We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds, and in the process heal our own, indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder…..
This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense of belonging to a larager family of life, with which we have shared our evolutionary process….”
Such an embracing of the “as above, so below” (big picture, little picture) philosophy toward the natural environment is common to many cultures, not just Celtic and African. It harkens back to our earth-bound origins and destinies. Dust to dust, and all that.
In one sense, it’s not a matter of black and white (small b and small w). In another it is; it’s a matter of balancing the black and the white — earth-centered ancient human connections with the promises of open-sky technology — heart and brain.
The ancient cultures from which we all have meandered, whether Black or White, all understood the physical as well as the psychic connections that humans have to the natural environment.
Writers like Loren Eisley and Annie Dillard and Mary Oliver intuitively grok the the infuence of the natural world on our personal lives.
Personally, I miss being able to walk out my front door and hug an oak, smell wet dirt-y leaves, settle on some old stone and twig a circle, start a cairn, follow some slug into the earth, meditate on the wisdom of major crones such as Wangari Maathai.
Again, Chris Locke inspires me, although probably not in the way he intended.

Is that what we’re going to be asked as we cross state lines some time in the near future??
An article in the National Herald Tribune about yesterday’s passage by Congress of the “landmark bill to restructure the Intelligence community,” includes the following detail of that legislation that I wonder how many people noticed:
uniform national standards for issuing driver’s licenses
Well that sounds pretty innocuous, doesn’t it?
Want to speculate on what that might actually mean? This site does, and, if they’re right (and I don’t know whether they are or not; do you?) our government will be echoing even more of Nazi Germany’s control tactics than they are already.
The article on the “What Does It Mean” site has this assessment:
In a chilling act more reminiscent of the now defunct Soviet Union or the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler, the United States Congress passed legislation yesterday that requires the States to surrender their regulatory rights over driver’s licenses and birth certificates to The Department of Homeland Security
[snip]
Beginning in 2005, the Department of Homeland Security will issue new uniformity regulations to the States requiring that all Drivers Licenses and Birth Certificates meet minimal Federal Standards with regard to US citizen information, including biometric security provisions.
Added to currently existing Federal Laws and Supreme Court rulings American citizens when born will be issued a Social Security Number that will be included on their Birth Certificates, along with DNA biometric markers. All birth certificates will also be registered in a Federal Government database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. No child will be allowed enrollment to schools or be entitled to either State of Federal Government benefits programs without first presenting a certified Homeland Security registered Birth Certificate.
Drivers Licenses will also contain DNA biometric markers and include the holders Social Security Number and be required for receiving and applying for all State and Federal benefits programs. Previous Supreme Court rulings have also upheld State and Federal Law Enforcement authorities right to request Identification from any American citizen, for any reason and at any time as not being violations of their, the citizens, constitutionally protected rights.
[snip]
Also included in this bill is a law to require The Department of Homeland Security to establish a separate ID system for citizens to use prior to boarding airplanes, and which is eerily reminiscent of the Soviet and Nazi regimes dreaded Internal Passport.
Never before in our history have the words of Benjamin Franklin been so correct when he stated: “people willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both”…….
Credit card companies are reported to like the idea because it will help to prevent fraud and identity theft.
There’s a part of me that also likes the idea of no one being able to steal my identity (not that I can imagine anyone who would want to), and since I shun anonymity and my life is, as they say, an open book, anyway, I don’t feel terribly threatened by my DNA being in some central file along with my eye color, hair color, and weight (the last four of which can be altered, as we all know).
I’m also pretty sure that’s what the honest German citizens thought.
But this is the age of weblogs and hyperlinks and not Morse Code. This is the age of online buying, selling, and shipping rather than “cash and carry.” The age of satellite surveillance and smart bombs and a complex universe of more than just a couple of innocent and supermoral superheroes that the Americans of the 40s could fantasize about.
Maybe the capacity of this technological world to obfuscate the boundaries among facts, fictions, and fantasies, blur the distinctions between countries and cultures, necessitates that we keep some record of who we each officially are as individuals.
If we were a true democracy here in America, if we were a nation dedicated to creating peace instead of waging war — if we truly valued ethical behavior and moral courage — if our leaders were honorable individuals who governed with big hearts instead of big heads —
Who am I kidding. We would have to have an awful lot of trust in our government to believe that they wouldn’t find a way to misuse the data they collect about us all.
And trust in our government is something that we lost along with our national innocence as a result of 9/11.
Just make sure you don’t lose those papers.

He’s one of the country’s ten most fascinating people, according to Barbara Walters. Even better than that, his Farenheit 9/11 was nominated as one of the year’s best films by the People’s Choice Awards.
Well, if that just didn’t rile up the neocons enough, again, to try derail another electoral process by launching some of their usual heavy-handed threats and propaganda.
Modest Mr. Moore has this to say about his unexpected nomination and the response of this adversaries:
Now, normally I wouldn’t make a very big deal out of something like this. It’s nice and I’m honored, but it’s not exactly the number one priority on any of our minds these days. In fact, when we found out we were nominated over a week ago, I didn’t even think to tell you about it or put it up on our website.
But then a group of top Republicans took out a full page ad in USA Today (and placed a similar one in the Hollywood trade magazine, Variety) proclaiming that “An election is over, but a war of ideas continues.” The point of the ad was to say that while they, as right wing conservatives, were proud of getting rid of Kerry, there was still one more nuisance running around loose they had to deal with — me! They also issued a not-so-subtle threat to the Academy Awards voters that, in essence, said don’t even THINK about nominating “Fahrenheit 9/11” for Best Picture. And Bill O’Reilly recently bellowed that if the Oscars recognize my work this year, Middle America will boycott Hollywood.
Oops. I guess he spoke too soon. Because now along comes Middle America’s favorite awards show, the People’s Choice, and the People’s Choice this year, along with a Spiderman superhero and a lovable green ogre, is a film that apparently continues to resonate throughout the country. The truth about Iraq, Bush, terror and fear. The election has not altered or made irrelevant, unfortunately, a single one of these issues. That they (and the film that dealt with these issues) are still at the forefront of the majority of the public’s minds should give serious pause to Mr. Bush as he brags about a nonexistent “mandate” and begins to spend his “political capital.”
So, get out the vote and get over to this site and let’s see if we can make a little bit of democracy work a little better this time.

When my toddler grandson someday studies the political history of the first half of the twenty-first century, I’m sure that Howard Dean will be among the few cited as true catalysts for change, as a true hero of our American dreams — a scrappy, idealistic, evangelist for democracy in the best sense of all of those words.
The tone and the substance of his remarks on the Future of the Democratic Party, given at George Washington University yesterday, should set the Party’s message until the next election is won.
Among all of the stirring, call-to-action statements that Dean made in his speech, these are my favorites:
We need to embrace real political reform — because only real reform will pry government from the grasp of the special interests who have made a mockery of reform and progress for far too long.
It is time for the Democratic Party to start framing the debate.
We have to learn to punch our way off the ropes.
We have to set the agenda.
We should not hesitate to call for reform — reform in elections, reform in health care and education, reforms that promote ethical business practices. And, yes, we need to talk about some internal reform in the Democratic Party as well, and I’ll be discussing that more specifically in the days ahead.
Reform is the hallmark of a strong Democratic Party.
Those who stand in the way of reform cannot be the focus of our attention for only four months out of every four years.
Reform is a daily battle.
And the success of each daily battle depends so much on strong, vocal, and inspiring leadership to keep the image of the destination clear and compelling on all fronts.
Howard Dean.

This movie was made when I was four years old, and the world was still reeling from the effects of Hitler’s “Today, Germany. Tomorrow the World.”
As I putter around my apartment on this lazy, snow-showery afternoon, I put on the Turner Classic Movie channel for distraction.
Tomorrow the World.
A young boy who has grown up under the Nazi regime and is fully indoctrinated by the relentless propaganda is sent to the United States to live with his uncle. A firm believer in the rule of the Reich, the boy upsets his family and community as his uncle attempts to control and teach him the downfalls of bigotry and hatred.
I can’t help draw a parallel between the young Nazi-indoctrinated boy and so many of the anti-liberal-American fundamentalists. Same attitudes, same rigidity, same refusal to see any side but their own, same naive willingness to believe the simplistic propaganda they’ve been fed by their leader. The American community in which the boy moves into at first welcomes him with humor and tolerance. But his mean-spiritedness and manipulativeness make that welcome wear thin.
Of course, back in the mid-1940s, people like that boy were far outnumbered by Americans who truly believed in the spirit of the American Bill of Rights — believed that it was important to keep America as a country that welcomed all nationalities and religions.
Also, of course, except for one Chinese boy, there were no minorities in that 1944 movies. Times have, thankfully, changed in that aspect of American inclusion. But the basic idea of that movie is still important.
I have been told by neocons and fundamentalists to stick to facts and not make references to movies and novels as examples of what is true, because those things are fiction and not fact. I don’t agree. For truth to reach our heads, it often has to reach our hearts first. Art aims truths to the heart, the guts — insinuates new ideas into minds atrophied from missed use, blind beliefs.
“The Nazis are afraid of ideas,” Fredercik March states to the boy. Neocons and fundamentalists are afraid of ideas.
“Today, America,” they believe. “Tomorrow the world.”
Are we scared enough yet?

How about this for transforming energy?

As my Ex (b!X’s dad) and I were saying goodbye to our son at the train station. we both took photos. They all came out normally, except for the above (which is exactly how it came out — no pixel tinkering, no Photoshopping).
Of course, given my addiction to magic and metaphors, especially magical metaphors — I had to post this one of my last moments with b!X before he got on the train.
My heart-light was definitely beaming.

Got this link in an email from Dean Landsman — a future EPIC not to be missed.
It’s 2014, and Google and Microsoft have figured out how to be in charge of all the informational media available to us. They pay bloggers to be a part of their networks. Our news comes to us based on our topic preferences. The NY Times et al are defunct.
How does that happen? How does it work? Watch the short piece here.
It’s what we wanted. Isn’t it?

Got this from Jim Culleny of NoUtopia.
I NEVER EVER watch Fox News, and I didn’t think I have the option to take it off my cable list of channels. I never thought of writing Fox to express my disgust at their biased news coverage. But a friend of Jim’s sent him the following e-mail, which I share here in hopes of generating some direct dissent against Fox News Network:
Subject: Foxless in America:
This is such simple, brilliant, potentially effective idea, I wish I could say I thought of it. It was actually sent to me by a friend who is impatient for grass roots action against the right wing to begin. I’m doing this at once. I hope you’ll decide to do the same and circulate the idea to at least a hundred million of your closest friends.
LET’S SEE THE STOCKS PLUMMET- FEED YOUR STRENGTH
If you, too, have had enough with the FOX news channel, please read below. This action will make your voice heard while simply choosing not to watch the station can not.
I have decided to make a political statement. I called mySatellite TV provider and asked them to remove Fox News from my television. Since the election I have wanted to stick my head out of a window of a tall building and shout I can’t take it anymore but I soon came to realize that there is a better and easier way to send a message to Rupert Murdoch and his blathering bunch at Fox News and that was to simply make them disappear from my life.
I called my cable TV provider and had Fox News deleted from my television. It was simple I called the Repair Department at Comcast and said I wanted to be Foxless in America. I then wrote an email to the following: Reed Nolte VP Investor Relations for News Corporation (the parent company of Fox News) at rnolte@newscorp.com and Brian Lewis, Senior VP Corporate Communications for Fox News at brian.lewis@foxnews.com and to top it off I copied murdoch@newscorp.com. I told them that I cannot take the Fox distortion and biased presentation of the news any longer and that they ought to inform their sponsors that there are millions like me. I can’t tell you the immense satisfaction I gained from becoming Foxless in America.
I am asking you to follow me in this protest and let it be heard by all that want to control what we all see and hear. This could be a way to have your voice heard-Become Foxless in America. We can start a movement if each of you send this email to all the others you know who are fed up with Fox News.
The email ends with some quotes worth sharing here:

I remember when Thanksgiving was fun — noisy with relatives who all lived within a block of each other and nosey with relatives who drove in from the next county or the next state. Everyone ate too much, drank too much, and laughed enough to keep us going until Christmas, when we’d do it all over again, except on a larger scale and a different menu.
It was just me and my mother this year. I cooked the traditional fare (including Polish kapusta, which is traditional for my family), but I don’t know why I bothered. While my mom ate up (she’s too frail and forgetful to have helped prepare anything), I was full from all the tasting I did along the way from cutting board to table. After dinner, I went and watched the same tv programs that I usually watch on Thursday nights (at least the ones that were on despite the “holiday”) while my mother napped in her recliner.
My daughter and her family (a couple of hours’ drive away) went out to dinner with her in-law family. She’s still getting her recently purchased home set up, and no one else wanted to cook.
My brother, who’s a vegetarian and lives an hour and a half away, is working on his house, so he didn’t even bother acknowledging the holiday.
Back in my home town, it was my aunt (who’s about in the same shape as my mother), her daughter, and her sister-in-law. They usually have pork, anyway.
Rituals and holidays used to be celebratory. Now so many of them are just a chore. We do what we’ve always done. Except everything else is different. And so we go through the motions. Motions without the satisfying E-motions.
I think that next year, I’m going to tell my brother to take my mother down to my aunts’ for Thanksgiving, and I’m heading out to my daughter’s. By then, her home wil be more than ready for company, and she plans to really get into the process and the product.
I’ll volunteer to make the kapusta. Maybe some butternut squash with apples and brown sugar, too. But that’s it. And I’ll eat too much and drink too much and laugh a lot.
I will bask in the noises of families fraternizing while the turkey bastes and new memories emerge. And, again, I will feel the full flood of thanks.