Unrecoverable

 Below is link sent to me by an acquaintance of over 45 years. By way of background this person was a high-school friend. We drifted apart a few years after college but during the 2000 election we began exchanging emails. The tone became so unhealthy that I stopped responding. I still from time to time receive emails from him and the perspective remains pretty much the same.

  

I have recently come to believe that there is a difference between that small (but substantial) minority and the rest of humanity. This difference is not one that can be explained by differences in values or experiences and I now believe can never be resolved to any meaningful degree by logical discourse or coercion. There is little common ground in the concepts of basic human rights and responsibilities. Agreement on basic facts pretty much stops at arithmetic. This minority has always existed but in the larger context of civil societies they were muffled and considered “strange”.  Of course, over the last 30 years the well-financed media echo chamber on the extreme right has emboldened this minority. With recent discoveries in mapping brain function we may be near to identifying the organic source of this anomaly. Now I realize finding a physical structure to explain behavior has been proposed almost from the beginning of the study of anatomy. These current studies may come to no more than the witch hunt efforts in the past but there does seem to be a certain logic to resistance to known facts being more than some cognitive failure. Those who believe torture is effective and justified for “national security” reasons are among this minority.

 http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1579920046?bctid=20047560001 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hate Continues

I was in the grocery store yesterday and passed by the small display of books. There was an Obama section that had grown since the inauguration.  This section had his two books, half a dozen or so biographies and a copy of his inauguration speech.  I had seen this section before but this time there was something different.  Every stack in this section had the top one or two books turned upside-down. This was not the result of some casual browser mislaying a book.  This was deliberate. It was every stack but only in the Obama section.  The rest of the book  display was normal. Fueled by ignorance and fear the hate continues.

A word of advice to our new President, do not risk our hopes and your life by visiting Texas.  I still remember the last time a young inspiring President came to Texas.

Currently reading Kite Runner by Hosseini, Supreme Injustice by Dershowitz, and American Caesar by Manchester.

Together?

John McCain quoted by Keith A Fournier at the Catholic Online said, “we are seeing for the first time in a long time Republicans and Democrats together sitting down trying to work out a solution to this fiscal crisis that we’re in.” Mr. Fournier prefaced McCain’s quote with “However, it was the older McCain who seemed steady in response, finding even a silver lining”.  Putting aside the pro-McCain spin my question goes deeper. What Mr. Fournier and Senator McCain see as a positive ignores the cause of this crisis. The GOP and their conservatives supporters have pushed the line for 30+ years that government is bad, free markets are good, unbridled capitalism is the goal. Now those policies are crashing down on all our heads.  The current situation reminds me of a fire in an apartment house where one tenant was reckless and “played with matches”.  Not only did his apartment burn but the whole building was engulfed and threatened with collapse. While the fire raged all the tenants including the source worked together to douse the flames. McCain praises the joint fire fighting  and conveniently skips the perpetrator in causing  the fire in the first place.

Just a short presentation for those still savoring the kool-aid

my-way 04:35

Turn up the sound, click the link above, relax and recall what this mindset leads to.

Apologies for the large file size (48 MB)

Simple Lessons Unlearned

1. Southerners - worshipping the oil and gas funded GOP is not favorable to God and Mother Earth. Witness the hurricane onslaughts on Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

2. Sarah Palin/Barbara Bush - two million years of human sexuality cannot be overcome with an “Abstinence Only” education and sex is not “Death”.

3. Investors (both foreign and domestic) selling out the America worker will not payoff in the long run for the assets you hold dear.

4.  Iraq war supporters – the Middle East is not West Germany. The final victory will be won by consumerism, not firepower and torture.

5. NAFTA whiners – the North American economies are now integrated and reaching out globally. You cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again.

6.  Newly involved voters – politics ain’t beanbag.

URGENT Call to all Evangelicals and Religious Fanatics of all types

Travel with all haste to New Orleans, Louisiana. Proceed to the water’s edge of the Gulf coast before noon on September 1!  This notice includes Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Praise-dent Bush, Gov Palin, and all full mooners. Once on station at the beach begin praying for hurricane Gustav to go back into the Gulf. Pray as hard as you can. Do not be deterred by the winds and rising tide. Ignore the calls to evacuate for you have the power. Raise your hands, close your eyes and shout until the seas calm. The lives and property of hundreds of thousands of people depend on YOU. Do not let them down. Go NOW!

This directive brought to you by the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives.

Thanks!

Thanks for those kind wishes while I was ill.  I have returned and will begin posting again soon.

Now reading:  The Dark Side by Jane Mayer and Baldwin Collection of Essays.

Ask not

Will we ever again hear a candidate ask us to give to our country rather than promise what our country will give us? Was it all that long ago?

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset+Tree/Asset+Viewers/Audio+Video+Asset+Viewer.htm?guid={F13B7798-7E4F-482C-9BF4-9E66EA6C1E56}&type=Video

Rather than “I feel your pain” pandering can we get at least one candidate who has a plan? Someone who honestly lays out our current situation and plainly says what has to be done. The Manhattan and Apollo projects showed what this country can accomplish when challenged. Telling the country to “go shopping” after the tragedy of September 11 or promising a gas tax holiday only leads us further from the vision of America as the shining city on the hill. How can we spend $1.6 Billion per day on gasoline and not have even a long range plan to move to sustainable alternative energy. How can the FBI counter terrorism unit only have 9 Arabic speakers? Closer to home should we expect the next generation to borrow to fully pay for in-state higher education and at the same time inherit a massive public debt? Just like the Minnesota bridge collapse our infrastructure is in disrepair. Are we going to fix it? Americans are an independent lot, but they will come together when shown a job to be done. They can take the bitter medicine if they know we’re trying to make our country better.  Enough asking for now.

We are not doing enough.

Death toll estimates in  Burma from the cyclone are 100,00+. News Hour Honor Roll today is 14. Darfur bleeds. The tide of human misery rises.  We spend more on cat food.

A couple of shorts

What’s Wrong with Rev. Wright

The MSM has been all over the Rev. Wright since the “discovery” of videos of his past sermons and interviews of late.  The introduction of every story includes the elements of “unpatriotic”, “radical”, “bombastic”,  and “outside mainstream Christianity.”  The endless repetition of the soundbite of “Damn America” is what the MSM does best, i.e. take a complex issue, find the most sensational excerpt from a speech and present it as the summation of the issue by the speaker. It grabs attention which is the goal of the corporate media serving an uninformed audience. Rather than address the deeper issues that Rev. Wright raises, e.g. imperialism, oppression, and role of the government and church, the MSM call themselves “journalists”.

Bowling for Pennsylvania

Now that the Pennsylvania primary is over it is time to look at some of the focus the MSM presented. Senator Obama’s bowling exploits were good for a couple of news cycles. Telling the story as Senator Obama’s failed attempt to show he “connects” with the working class was a constant theme.  Senator Clinton’s fond memories of gun handling were recounted to demonstrate her connection with the same groups.  But there is another “bowling” issue the political process does not address. The tragedy of “Bowling for Columbine”.  Playing upon the fears of legitimate gun owners and hunters that big government was coming after them  is constant fodder for the right-wing.  The “gun” issue misses the central question, why do such a large number of our fellow citizens turn to guns to deal with personal conflict.  Almost daily the media reports some man who becomes estranged from his mate and feels he must shoot her and often himself, the neighbor who when confronted with some boisterous youths on his property shoots one or more, and the bullied high school student who bring a bag of guns to school to exact his revenge. Who is asking why and what can and should be done to excise this uniquely American anti-social behavior?