We Remember...

...those who have served their country in its wars today. Wars for honor, for property, for liberty, wars to end all wars.

They wanted what most of us want: respect, self-respect, a family, a home. Some of them got to have that. Some lost it all. It's only right that we should honor them--not just today, not just by slapping a plastic ribbon on the back of an automobile, but by paying attention to how we spend the lives they sacrifice in our names.

No more blood for oil. No more blood for global corporate empire. Let it finally end.

No more holidays for the dead. No war, to end all wars.

Mega-mania?

An article in Harper's magazine offers a disturbing look at what it calls "America's Most Powerful Megachurch". It suggests a true alternative universe in which demons roam, looking for bodies to inhabit:

The demons are cold, they need bodies, they long to come inside. People let them in in two different ways. One is to be sinned against..... The other is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You could walk by sin—a murder, a homosexual act—and a demon will leap onto your bones. Cities, therefore, are especially dangerous.

So apparently are ethnic restuarants, women who work outside the home and anybody who doesn't look like you, think like you, and own a fake-white-picket-fence suburban cookie-cutter house like you. It's conformity as the ultimate expression of religious conviction.

These people don't need a logical argument in favor of universal health care; they need therapy. Is religious fundamentalism nothing more than a mega-construct for denial and the avoidance of reality on a mass scale? Is it, in effect, a form of mental illness?

There is an interesting, though passing, mention of this question in Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven. What is the difference between faith (that is "faith", as in "faith-based") and madness? I suspect there is one, but reading articles like this one (above) makes me wonder if some true believers haven't crossed over the line.

Thanks J

You've persuaded me to pick up the pen...cudgel...uh, keyboard once again.

And Furthermore...

Things are getting hot for the world's remaining superpower as well. Tom Englehardt writes at Tomdispatch.com about "Moving Out of the Superpower Orbit" in which, having shown the limits of our global reach in Iraq, and having no attention, money or military left to exert any influence over events elsewhere, we are now seeing our global neighbors go their own way in ways that may have been inevitable, but wouldn't have been possible, even five years ago--that is, before the present Bush administration.

Maybe I should be grateful to the squinty-eyed bastard. He's been an agent of change all right, but not in the way he imagined. The rest of the world will no doubt be better off. As for ourselves, I have mixed feelings. I would have preferred a more gentle decline, not this steep dive down a rat hole that we seem to be doing. The unscrupulous, even brutal projection of American power has always offended me, but I am not naive enough not to know that I have benefitted from it in some ways. American clout has sucked money out of the pockets of poorer nations for half a century, and given me the middle-class lifestyle I now fear to lose.

Maybe impending memory loss will keep me from remembering too clearly how it used to be. That and a well-tended garden (oh wait...I live in a desert!) may be my only hope.

Missing brain cells and overabundant zuchini. What a sorry-ass end to empire.

I'm In Hot Flash Hell!!

I mean, I am officially in hot flash hell! It's 100 degrees outside, and either the swamp cooler doesn't work right or I'm having hot flashes. Probably both. All I know is, if I could fit myself into the refrigerator, I would--where I would probably immediately cause the entire freezer compartment to melt, and do god-knows-what to the cottage cheese.

Ah hormones! Ah fermentation! (Speaking of which, is that a beer I see in here??)

Weird/Wonderful Science

First there are the exploding toads.

I mean, I could talk about George Bush's press conference (but why?) or the finger-in-the-chili story, or speculate about the future of the National Hockey Leage, but what really, really intrigues me is that frogs in Germany are spontaneously exploding because crows are eating their livers. Meanwhile, a fossil find here in Utah reveals a link in the evolutionary chain between modern-day birds and their dinosaur ancestors.

Pretty cool, huh? Almost enough to make you forget the de-evolution of intelligent life that seems to be occuring at the highest levels of our government. And at Wendy's and at the National Hockey League-- but let's leave that for another day, shall we?

My Honest-to-God (!) Last Post About Religion (for now)

Frank Rich of NYT writes about "The God Racket", featuring Yul Brynner, Tom DeLay and a cast of thousands, coming to a formerly-secular space near you:

In that famous Election Day exit poll, "moral values" voters amounted to only 22 percent. Similarly, an ABC News survey last weekend found that only 27 percent of Americans thought it was "appropriate" for Congress to "get involved" in the Schiavo case and only 16 percent said it would want to be kept alive in her condition. But a majority of American colonists didn't believe in witches during the Salem trials either - any more than the Taliban reflected the views of a majority of Afghans. At a certain point - and we seem to be at that point - fear takes over, allowing a mob to bully the majority over the short term. (Of course, if you believe the end is near, there is no long term.)

For the record, I do NOT believe the end is near, so I assume that at some point the short term will end when Americans get fed up with being bullied and fed up with the spinelessness of a media that panders to bullies. In fact, I think we ought to start using the b-word every chance we get. It conjures up an image that every kid who ever got his-or-her ass whupped (figuratively and otherwise) can relate to. Talk about your unifying cultural experience--there you have it.

Happy Easter Y'all

Easter Bunny Pummeled By Boy at Mall

And While We're Regressing...

Now here's something cool: scientists think they may have found soft tissue inside the fossilized thighbone of a 70-million year old Tyrannosaurus Rex. Ka-ching! Now there's a roadside attraction I would pay a bunch to see.

The Other Shoe, Dropping

Randall Terry (founder of Operation Rescue and self-proclaimed champion of Terry Schiavo) and his followers are now asking whether Florida governor Jeb Bush will invade the hospital and physically seize Ms. Schiavo in order to prolong her life--or whether he will "wash his hands" of her, a la Pontius Pilate. C'mon, it's Good Friday you godless goons! Get it??

Bush, for his part, acknowledges that there are limits to his power. Good for him. Not that he really has a choice. But now that the Christian zealots are stirred up there will be "hell to pay", in the words of Terry, if things don't go their way.

There's been so much made of this poor woman's fate and she's been so shamelessly used that I'm reluctant to even bring this up. But if the Republicans are going to get caught in a noose of their own making, after rousing the religious right to re-elect George Bush, and after grotesquely latching on to this case for their perceived partisan advantage--well I'd say that's pretty providential, wouldn't you?

Trouble is, I don't have faith that the electorate has the attention span of a flea. Will this cause a falling out on the right? There's already been a certain amount of eating-one's-own. Ow, was that a finger??

May Terry Schiavo and her family have some peace when this is all over. And may Tom Delay, Bill Frist and all their ilk get what they deserve as well.

Ed. News reports tonight indicate that there have been solicitations for the murder of Terry Schiavo's husband and the Florida judge who has ruled against her parents. Both men are under police protection.

Ed. Here's an interesting exercise: try google-ing Judge Greer and see what you get. This man is being reviled and threatened; he was asked by his pastor to leave his church. So much for the rule of law. So much for a "culture of life". Apparently only the brain-dead (and the unborn) need apply.

Feedback Loop

Our government has agreed to give $3.2 in military aid to the government of Guatemala, which was one of the more egregious violators of human rights in the hemisphere in the 1980s. This may have something to do with the fact that Guatemala has just signed on to the so-called Central American Free Trade Agreement, in spite of violent protests in that country during which at least one person was killed.

I would have thought our military contractors had enough demand for their products, what with their hardware getting used up/blown up in Iraq every day. Can't ever have too many helicopters though, can you? And what in the world does a country like Guatemala need a military to fight against? Peasants? Disaffected sweatshop workers? Excuse me, internal subversion.

Exactly.

And so the noose gets pulled a little tighter. Read "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. His writing style is a bit odd, and he spends way too much time telling us how very guilty he felt doing what he was doing--but he does pull a lot of threads together in a very readable way, and hearing it in the context of a memoir (/confession) gives an immediacy to the story that you wouldn't get from a more impersonal analysis.

And Now For Something Completely Differerent, or Why I Am a Vegetarian (sort of)

Woman Bites Into Finger at Fast Food Restaurant

Also, when I google-ed this story I found:

Chili Finger Food Recipes

Sorry, couldn't help myself :)

Old Religion, Same Old Story

An article in the Chicago Tribune talks about how Iraqi women fear losing their rights in a new, non-secular Iraq. Never having had to cover up my body in a shapeless bag in order to walk down the street in peace, I can only try to imagine what it must be like to contemplate the new "democracy" these women are facing. Are they better off? Are we?

Our home-grown fundamentalists probably don't think this is such a big deal. Compared to getting your head cut off, it's not. And no one ever said that democracy would automatically advance the human condition, did they? It merely gives you a tool to do so.

At least I hope so. Ask me again in four years.

New Religion, Same Old Story

Leaders of five major Protestant denominations held a press conference to denounce the proposed Bush budget as immoral, which it almost certainly is, but what interests me is this whole new emphasis on the language of religion to frame political discourse. If we could have a real, honest-to-God(!) debate on what the moral foundation of this country should be, or what it is--if it's even possible to have that kind of discussion--it might bring about a political shift of profound consequence. But I'm really not convinced that there's some sort of broad religious groundswell happening here. People aren't turning to religion per se, they're turning to fundamentalism, and I'm not sure that a newfound emphasis on the Beatitudes and whether or not a rich man can pass through the eye of a needle is going to change that. This is a global phenomenon. People are fearful, they're resentful; they're looking for answers, they're looking for scapegoats; they're looking for the illusion of stability and safety in a world that doesn't have much of either. The only real solution to their real problems is a political solution that says that working people have the right to: a self-respecting job at a decent wage; decent health care, clean air and water, sound education and a say in the affairs of their community and their nation.

Maybe talking about social justice in the language of religion can create an environment where such "liberal" values can once again be considered credible enough to fight for in the political arena. But that's where the battle will be fought and make no mistake, the forces of the corporate/security state will not be swayed by morality. We need some righteous anger and a big-ass stick to chase these money-changers from the temple. Jesus may have been a liberal, but he knew how to kick butt when he had to.

Skin Games

Weapons researchers in the US are developing a "ray gun" which can inflict intense pain from as much as 2km. away, says a report in the New Scientist. The weapons, called "Pulsed Energy Projectiles", fire a laser pulse that triggers impulses in the human nervous system that can cause "pain and temporary paralysis". A contract between the Office of Naval Research and the University of Florida at Gainesville asks researchers to look for "optimal pulse parameters to evoke peak nociceptor activation".

Holy gobbledy-gook, batman! Perfect--a weapon that leaves no marks while torturing its victims. And from a safe distance no less. While I don't advocate the use of real, honest-to-God violence against anyone, if some cop is going to beat the shit out of me for, oh, say holding up an anti-George Bush sign or protesting against Wal-Mart, I'd a lot rather the marks showed, thanks. Pardon my mess, but the state doesn't own my skin--yet.

Wild About Harry

Senate minority leader Harry Reid is certainly rising in my estimation. Just today he apparently called Fed chairman Alan Greenspan "one of the biggest political hacks we have here in Washington". Right on! This is the man who praises tax cuts as the cure for budget surpluses, tax cuts as the cure for budget deficits, and who just today came out in favor of replacing the income tax with a national sales tax. Huh? And oh yeah, every time he sneezes (or makes some mysterious, ponderous pronouncement about who-knows-what) the markets go into a tailspin. Man, does that annoy me.

Paul Krugman also offers his take on Greenspan's support of Social Security privatization.

I'd say it's time to put this guy out to pasture, but I have no faith that anyone appointed by this administration would be any better. But at least he's finally getting called out for being the partisan weasel that he is.

Non-ordinary Joe

Joe Bageant writes in Dissident Voice about what it's like to be Poor, White and Pissed. A long piece but well worth reading. Writing from the belly of the beast--that is, Virginia--Joe follows in the line of "what liberals don't understand about red-state America" but with humor, clarity and compassion. Personally, it was the line about spending your life "yanking guts out through a chicken's ass" that did it for me. Lordee I reckon!

Later Days Addendum

I refuse to believe that things cannot get better. Even if they can't, I refuse to look away. I won't be anesthetized, or marginalized, or made to shut up.

And if I have to go and rest my face against a canyon wall every once in a while in order to be able to stand it, then that's what I'll do.

These walls will be here after us. They're beautiful, but they don't care.

But I do.

Later Days

I have promised myself to post more often, but it's hard when the early-spring canyons are so inviting, and the news of the day--any day--is depressingly the same.

We all need a break from the world sometimes. But the world doesn't go away just because we're not watching. Shit happens.

People get blown up in Iraq. Politicians lie. Christian fundamentalists await the Rapture.

Sometimes it's hard to believe that we're not on the downside of the slippery slope to, if not extinction, then to a sorry squalid Hobbs-ian state of perpetual war and moral diminishment. Maybe the organochlorines building up in our bodies will finally make it imposssible for us to reproduce. Maybe that's the good news.

Wow! How's that for a bleak outlook? Do I need a hike or what??

The More Things Change (Part II of Many)

Back in Moab, I've been bouncing around between temporary living quarters until I can find a place to live. Ah, the itinerant life! The inside of my car actually feels the most like home--I've spent enough time in it lately--but I hope I won't have to resort to living there.

Meanwhile, little has changed here. I had no sooner arrived than I read in the paper about a county council meeting that broke out into unspecified "personal attacks" and had to be adjourned; the issue under discussion was revision of the county's OHV (off highway vehicle--of which there are plenty here) ordinance. ATV drivers want to use portions of the county's paved roads to get from one trail to another. Having seen more than a few of these machines driven by children at high rates of speed, the idea of sharing the road with them gives me hives. Of course there are those in the community who feel otherwise, and they're entitled to their opinions. Apparently not all of them feel the same way.

And then there are those who seem to think that whatever serves their interests necessarily serves the interests of the larger community. Therefore, anyone who disagrees is a moron, and a dangerous commie scum yuppie elitist moron at that.

Like I said, some things never change.

Though I must say that the explicitly nasty tone these arguments have taken is new, at least in my experience. But one has only to look at the national scene to see that nastiness has become the norm in public discourse.

Exhibit A:



Now what, you may ask, does AARP have to do with the military or with gay marriage? I'm still waiting for USANext, the astroturf group running these ads to smear AARP for its opposition to Social Security privatization, to tell me.

The only answer I can think of is that they really think we're all idiots.

We shall see....