Saturday, June 14, 2003
Sacrifice
I'm exploring the definition of sacrifice. In the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, tenth edition, sacrifice means "the giving of something precious to a diety". That is the first meaning. The third meaning, and I'll review the second in a moment, is "the destruction of something for the sake of something else".
These definitions are wide open, in the sense of what isn't defined of this word, sacrifice. What isn't defined is what "should" or "ought" to be sacrificed. There is no narrow selection of choices that one can choose from with which to sacrifice.
The definition implies that it is our choice what we offer to our diety in sacrifice. It is our choice in sacrifice what we destroy, for the sake of something else. There is an implication, that it is we who define the nature of the sacrifice.
There is a time and a place for sacrifice. We would not ask a mother to surrender food for her children, as part of a sacrifice, would we? Sacrifice is one of the oldest rituals on this planet, that the ancients sacrificed in order to please their deities, so that the deities would smile favorably on the community. Individuals gave sacrifice so the gods would smile favorable on them and their loved ones.
What do we sacrifice? Do we discern between what is necessary to our survival, and what we need to let go of, for the sake of our survival? What are we willing to let go of for the sake of our community? What are we not willing to let go of, and why?
More importantly, what do we want to save? What do we want to create?
As creatures sharing this planet, it is vital we begin to explore these questions for ourselves, and begin to learn what is really important to us, to our children, to our families, for our survival. If we don't begin to make these choices for ourselves, then others will continue to make them for us. As we know from experience, they may or may not have our best interests at heart.
These definitions are wide open, in the sense of what isn't defined of this word, sacrifice. What isn't defined is what "should" or "ought" to be sacrificed. There is no narrow selection of choices that one can choose from with which to sacrifice.
The definition implies that it is our choice what we offer to our diety in sacrifice. It is our choice in sacrifice what we destroy, for the sake of something else. There is an implication, that it is we who define the nature of the sacrifice.
There is a time and a place for sacrifice. We would not ask a mother to surrender food for her children, as part of a sacrifice, would we? Sacrifice is one of the oldest rituals on this planet, that the ancients sacrificed in order to please their deities, so that the deities would smile favorably on the community. Individuals gave sacrifice so the gods would smile favorable on them and their loved ones.
What do we sacrifice? Do we discern between what is necessary to our survival, and what we need to let go of, for the sake of our survival? What are we willing to let go of for the sake of our community? What are we not willing to let go of, and why?
More importantly, what do we want to save? What do we want to create?
As creatures sharing this planet, it is vital we begin to explore these questions for ourselves, and begin to learn what is really important to us, to our children, to our families, for our survival. If we don't begin to make these choices for ourselves, then others will continue to make them for us. As we know from experience, they may or may not have our best interests at heart.
# posted by scorpiorising : 6:09 PM |
Friday, June 13, 2003
The small god within.
Oh boy, the news isnt' good from Liberty Hill. Liberty Hill Foundation churns out activists in several arenas in the Los Angelas county, and the news from the City of Angels may reflect a budding national trend, from TomPaine.Commonsense.com:
Los Angeles now has the sharpest economic divide in the nation -- fourth in the world after Calcutta.
One guy who has been working on Skid Row for 20 years told me he's never seen so many women and children on the Row -- 82,000 people in Los Angeles County are now homeless each day of the year.
At the day laborer center that we fund, a man recently said to me, "I came from a Third World country for a chance for my family, and found another Third World country -- no housing, no jobs, no health care."
A South L.A. organizer talks about her community's "ghost population" -- the men coming home from prison at a rate of 98 a day. Half of them can't read, and most have untreated drug problems. Almost none will find work, at least not legal work. The majority will return to prison.
These may be local problems, but they reflect national trends, priorities and policies.
82,000 homeless in Los Angelas County; the sharpest economic divide in the nation, 4th only to Calcutta.
Are we peering into America's future when we look at statistics like that? I wonder if our definitions of nation would survive those numbers.
Yet, even from the vantage point of Liberty Hill, there is hope:
Sometimes, when the view from Liberty Hill reveals what I fear could become the destruction of the dream called America, I recall what Dr. Martin Luther King said: "Let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.... The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
And indeed, from Liberty Hill I can also see the sparks of leadership, organizing and vision that could someday reclaim our America. Our America, where we delight in difference, expand opportunity and invest in our young people. Our America, where we know that true patriotism is not imperial arrogance or blind nationalism. Our America, where we take shared responsibility for each other, and honor higher values, like liberty and justice for all.
The vision from Liberty Hill is that of the individual taking responsibility for the kind of world that he or she wants to live in:
L.A. is also now the most diverse place on the planet, and this emerging force for justice cuts across all lines of class, culture and community. It holds huge potential for pointing the way toward reclaiming our country, but it's still centered in the small, specific battles fought every day by those whom the Indian writer Arundhati Roy calls "our small heroes."
Roy writes: "Who knows? Perhaps what the 21st century has in store for us all is the dismantling of the big -- big ideologies, big contradictions, big wars, big heroes, big mistakes.... Perhaps this will be the century of the small. Perhaps right now, this very minute, there is a small god up in heaven readying herself for us."
The small god within.
Los Angeles now has the sharpest economic divide in the nation -- fourth in the world after Calcutta.
One guy who has been working on Skid Row for 20 years told me he's never seen so many women and children on the Row -- 82,000 people in Los Angeles County are now homeless each day of the year.
At the day laborer center that we fund, a man recently said to me, "I came from a Third World country for a chance for my family, and found another Third World country -- no housing, no jobs, no health care."
A South L.A. organizer talks about her community's "ghost population" -- the men coming home from prison at a rate of 98 a day. Half of them can't read, and most have untreated drug problems. Almost none will find work, at least not legal work. The majority will return to prison.
These may be local problems, but they reflect national trends, priorities and policies.
82,000 homeless in Los Angelas County; the sharpest economic divide in the nation, 4th only to Calcutta.
Are we peering into America's future when we look at statistics like that? I wonder if our definitions of nation would survive those numbers.
Yet, even from the vantage point of Liberty Hill, there is hope:
Sometimes, when the view from Liberty Hill reveals what I fear could become the destruction of the dream called America, I recall what Dr. Martin Luther King said: "Let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.... The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
And indeed, from Liberty Hill I can also see the sparks of leadership, organizing and vision that could someday reclaim our America. Our America, where we delight in difference, expand opportunity and invest in our young people. Our America, where we know that true patriotism is not imperial arrogance or blind nationalism. Our America, where we take shared responsibility for each other, and honor higher values, like liberty and justice for all.
The vision from Liberty Hill is that of the individual taking responsibility for the kind of world that he or she wants to live in:
L.A. is also now the most diverse place on the planet, and this emerging force for justice cuts across all lines of class, culture and community. It holds huge potential for pointing the way toward reclaiming our country, but it's still centered in the small, specific battles fought every day by those whom the Indian writer Arundhati Roy calls "our small heroes."
Roy writes: "Who knows? Perhaps what the 21st century has in store for us all is the dismantling of the big -- big ideologies, big contradictions, big wars, big heroes, big mistakes.... Perhaps this will be the century of the small. Perhaps right now, this very minute, there is a small god up in heaven readying herself for us."
The small god within.
# posted by scorpiorising : 4:15 PM |
Thursday, June 12, 2003
Back in Baghdad
I've been reading Where is Raed? today. Fantastic from the heart of Baghdad stuff. He referred readers to another Baghdad blogger, new, G. in Baghdad, who is also excellent. Here is an excerpt from Where is Raed? This man is real and right on:
I really need to get something out of my system.
I got an email. After throwing everything and the kitchen sink at me they ask:
"How are your parents doing?
Ah yes, your parents. Salam, people are wondering."
Actually they are doing very well, thank you. My father was invited to an informal dinner attended by Garner the second week he was in Baghdad; he also met some of Bodine’s aides and has met some of Bremer’s aides a couple of times too. Not to mention many of your top military people south of Baghdad.
Seriously, not joking there.
Let me make a suggestion. Do not assume, not even for a second, that because you read the blog you know who I am or who my parents are. And you are definitely not entitled to be disrespectful. Not everything that goes on in this house ends up on the blog, so please go play Agatha Christy somewhere else.
My mother, a sociologist who was very happy in pursuing her career at the ministry of education decided to give up that career when she had to choose between becoming Ba’ath party member and quitting her job, she became a housewife. My father, a very well accomplished economist made the same decision and decided to become a farmer instead.
You are being disrespectful to the people who have put the first copy of George Orwell’s 1984 in my hands, a heavy read for a 14 year old with bad English. But that banned book started a process and gave me the impulse to look at the world I live in a different way.
go fling the rubbish at someone else.
Then here is an excerpt from G. in Baghdad, who impresses me as eloquent and a keen observer:
If we were in Beirut, grozny or Tehran with the same set of events we just had in Baghdad, We would have half of the politicians around us assassinated by rival factions, at least 10 suicide bombers, half of the American journalists here taken as hostages and sectarian / ethnic fighting’s in the streets.
Instead of that what we see around us, is a city going back to life some times grudgingly but other times with fast speed.
Electricity is almost as normal as in the days of Saddam, the markets are just beautiful, people are going out shopping for clothes, satellite dishes, or just buying cokes, you have families in the streets, Americans in humviees surrounded by kids, security is much better and people are still selling beer on the side walks in some districts of Baghdad in spite of all the fiery sermons by Shi’a / Sunni clerics calling for a virtuous – read alcohol free - society).
I don’t want to give the impression here that every thing is all right and there is no crisis in Iraq, I just want to say that the Americans had - and still have - a perfect opportunity in Iraq, an opportunity they won’t have anywhere else, they could have won the hearts and minds of the Iraqis from the first week after the toppling of the regime, but instead they just provided the extremists with all the pretexts they need - as if they needed any- to attack the Americans they have wasted a good deal of good intensions and hope.
please stop and start doing your homework properly, I don’t want my country to be another breeding place for Osamas and lunatic terrorists.
I really need to get something out of my system.
I got an email. After throwing everything and the kitchen sink at me they ask:
"How are your parents doing?
Ah yes, your parents. Salam, people are wondering."
Actually they are doing very well, thank you. My father was invited to an informal dinner attended by Garner the second week he was in Baghdad; he also met some of Bodine’s aides and has met some of Bremer’s aides a couple of times too. Not to mention many of your top military people south of Baghdad.
Seriously, not joking there.
Let me make a suggestion. Do not assume, not even for a second, that because you read the blog you know who I am or who my parents are. And you are definitely not entitled to be disrespectful. Not everything that goes on in this house ends up on the blog, so please go play Agatha Christy somewhere else.
My mother, a sociologist who was very happy in pursuing her career at the ministry of education decided to give up that career when she had to choose between becoming Ba’ath party member and quitting her job, she became a housewife. My father, a very well accomplished economist made the same decision and decided to become a farmer instead.
You are being disrespectful to the people who have put the first copy of George Orwell’s 1984 in my hands, a heavy read for a 14 year old with bad English. But that banned book started a process and gave me the impulse to look at the world I live in a different way.
go fling the rubbish at someone else.
Then here is an excerpt from G. in Baghdad, who impresses me as eloquent and a keen observer:
If we were in Beirut, grozny or Tehran with the same set of events we just had in Baghdad, We would have half of the politicians around us assassinated by rival factions, at least 10 suicide bombers, half of the American journalists here taken as hostages and sectarian / ethnic fighting’s in the streets.
Instead of that what we see around us, is a city going back to life some times grudgingly but other times with fast speed.
Electricity is almost as normal as in the days of Saddam, the markets are just beautiful, people are going out shopping for clothes, satellite dishes, or just buying cokes, you have families in the streets, Americans in humviees surrounded by kids, security is much better and people are still selling beer on the side walks in some districts of Baghdad in spite of all the fiery sermons by Shi’a / Sunni clerics calling for a virtuous – read alcohol free - society).
I don’t want to give the impression here that every thing is all right and there is no crisis in Iraq, I just want to say that the Americans had - and still have - a perfect opportunity in Iraq, an opportunity they won’t have anywhere else, they could have won the hearts and minds of the Iraqis from the first week after the toppling of the regime, but instead they just provided the extremists with all the pretexts they need - as if they needed any- to attack the Americans they have wasted a good deal of good intensions and hope.
please stop and start doing your homework properly, I don’t want my country to be another breeding place for Osamas and lunatic terrorists.
# posted by scorpiorising : 11:30 AM |
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
A-bloggin' and A-bloggin'
Representative Henry Waxman, a democrat from California, wants to know why the administration used documents that were known to be forged as part of its intelligence evidence on wmds:
"When I saw that, it really blew me away," Thielmann told Newsweek. Thielmann knew about the source of the allegation. The CIA had come up with some documents purporting to show Saddam had attempted to buy up to 500 tons of uranium oxide from the African country of Niger. INR had concluded that the purchases were implausible - and made that point clear to Powell's office. As Thielmann read that the president had relied on these documents to report to the nation, he thought, "Not that stupid piece of garbage. My thought was, how did that get into the speech?"
Whew, chasing this rabbit down the rabbit hole keeps getting more and more...interesting.
"When I saw that, it really blew me away," Thielmann told Newsweek. Thielmann knew about the source of the allegation. The CIA had come up with some documents purporting to show Saddam had attempted to buy up to 500 tons of uranium oxide from the African country of Niger. INR had concluded that the purchases were implausible - and made that point clear to Powell's office. As Thielmann read that the president had relied on these documents to report to the nation, he thought, "Not that stupid piece of garbage. My thought was, how did that get into the speech?"
Whew, chasing this rabbit down the rabbit hole keeps getting more and more...interesting.
# posted by scorpiorising : 5:06 PM |
"Politics of Vengence"--liquidlist
I've been blogging today like there's no tomorrow. The liquidlist.com has the scoop on the "politics of vengence", and why Martha Stewart and Sam Waskal have been targeted for indictment, and not Ken Lay and Bernie Ebbers:
Check out the numbers from the FEC. Sam Waksal, who was sentenced to seven years for insider trading, donated more than $90,000 to Democrats for state or federal Democratic party organizations in the last few electoral cycles. Martha Stewart made $100,000 in straight soft money donations to Democratic organizations, and gave an additonal $65,000 in joint fundraising to Democratic organizations.
What about Bernie Ebbers, who helped to perpetrate one of the biggest frauds and biggest bankruptcies in corporate history? The WorldCom multimillionaire hasn't been charged with a crime, even though two recent reports clearly lay the blame at his feet. And what's his giving portfolio like? Ebbers gave more than $50,000 in political donations, the vast majority of which went to Republicans (and to a couple Democrats who, surprise, surprise, sit on committees that oversees telecommunications).
Ken Lay, who presided over another massive fraud, incorporating a great deal of lying and cheating, and possibly helped to bring about the energy market collapse in California, is surely a target for investigations, right? Wrong. Uncharged with any crime, Lay lives free while his victims mortgage homes and empty savings accounts just to survive after losing all their savings in Enron stock. In soft money alone, Lay put out $350,000, almost all of it to the RNC, except for a $25,000 election week 2000 donation to John Ashcroft's Senate campaign, wherein he lost his seat to a corpse. Kenny Boy's hard money is hard to add up, but barring a contribution to the Democratic Enron hometown Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Lay's contributions are all to Republican candidates, officeholders or PACs.
Check out the numbers from the FEC. Sam Waksal, who was sentenced to seven years for insider trading, donated more than $90,000 to Democrats for state or federal Democratic party organizations in the last few electoral cycles. Martha Stewart made $100,000 in straight soft money donations to Democratic organizations, and gave an additonal $65,000 in joint fundraising to Democratic organizations.
What about Bernie Ebbers, who helped to perpetrate one of the biggest frauds and biggest bankruptcies in corporate history? The WorldCom multimillionaire hasn't been charged with a crime, even though two recent reports clearly lay the blame at his feet. And what's his giving portfolio like? Ebbers gave more than $50,000 in political donations, the vast majority of which went to Republicans (and to a couple Democrats who, surprise, surprise, sit on committees that oversees telecommunications).
Ken Lay, who presided over another massive fraud, incorporating a great deal of lying and cheating, and possibly helped to bring about the energy market collapse in California, is surely a target for investigations, right? Wrong. Uncharged with any crime, Lay lives free while his victims mortgage homes and empty savings accounts just to survive after losing all their savings in Enron stock. In soft money alone, Lay put out $350,000, almost all of it to the RNC, except for a $25,000 election week 2000 donation to John Ashcroft's Senate campaign, wherein he lost his seat to a corpse. Kenny Boy's hard money is hard to add up, but barring a contribution to the Democratic Enron hometown Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Lay's contributions are all to Republican candidates, officeholders or PACs.
# posted by scorpiorising : 3:42 PM |
Dear Rush,
Since this is an open letter to Rush Limbaugh, courtesy of Common Dreams.org, I hope Margie Burns doesn't mind if I reprint it in full. Within this letter you will find these delicious tidbits: Clear Channel has won an advertising contract in France; Clear Channel has "radio hosts boosting 'I hate France web-sites'. The Paris Air Show, held every other year, is hugely patronized by the U.S. government and military contractors...and on and on and on:
"An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh
by Margie Burns
Dear Mr. Limbaugh,
I have not heard your widely acclaimed radio broadcasts, but it has come to my attention that you’ve been urging your fans to “PLEASE, BOYCOTT ALL FRENCH PRODUCTS!”
As luck would have it, the perfect target for your boycott is coming up: on June 15 through 22 of this year, France will host the 45th annual Paris Air Show.
The Paris Air Show, as you may know, is a global aviation and arms fair, that takes place in the Paris venue Le Bourget every other year, alternating with another huge trade show for weapons and weapons systems called Eurosatory. You may not have heard that Eurosatory and the Paris Air Show are hugely patronized by the U.S. government and by U.S. military contractors. (http://www.paris-air-show.com)
The list of U.S. exhibitors so far, available from contact person Cara Boulesteix in the Commerce Department, runs 16 pages and more than 200 companies. Many subsidiaries, partnerships and cooperative agreements are not mentioned. Prominently featured are giant military contractors General Electric Co., Boeing, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. Indeed, the list is a virtual who’s who of our corporate federal contractors who are also feverishly hawking (no pun intended) their wares abroad, including Kaiser Aluminum, Goodrich, Teleflex and Bell Helicopter. A glossy tradition of cosmopolitanism in arms and “dual-use” transactions has long been established here, of course: You may recall that Honeywell, Rockwell and Bell Helicopter also were among the dozens of U.S. corporations whose products ended up in Saddam’s Iraq. (www.thememory-hole.org/corp/iraq-suppliers.htm)
Some of the merchant-of-death networking might surprise the public. Several states, including Virginia, are exhibiting at the venue, including Jeb Bush’s Florida, which will be amply represented by “Southwest Florida,” and “Enterprise Florida,” each advertising cheap Florida labor. Speaking of security, Tampa International Airport also is an exhibitor. But then, the Federal Aviation Administration itself attends the air show, as does the American Association of Airport Executives. So any purchases of security systems, military data recorders, night-vision searchlights, cargo and baggage handling systems, communications systems and other devices designed to elude them, take place figuratively under their noses.
Thus far, the FAA has not been grounded. This year, though, the administration is limiting the number of officials attending the show to 150.
Not that the rubbing elbows is confined to current officeholders. Another U.S. exhibitor is Aviall Inc., a giant aviation-parts distributor owned partly by the Carlyle Group, in which the Bush family possesses a substantial interest through former President George H. W. Bush. Not much new there. This would be the same Carlyle Group formerly associated with Saudi Arabia’s giant industrial complex, the Bin Laden Group.
Mr. Limbaugh, I know what you may say: These corporate networks are so intertwined in our lives that no person, even equipped with a conscience, can avoid entanglement. You may point out that even Clear Channel, the communications behemoth whose hundreds of radio stations proudly advertise your talk show, does multimillion-dollar business in France annually. Clear Channel itself, you will say, which banned the Dixie Chicks’ songs on its channels, has radio hosts boosting I-hate-France Web sites and puts you and your boycott on the airwaves, has live entertainment venues in France, and recently won a 12-year, $35 million advertising contract in France. The company owns French subsidiaries (www.clearchannel.ie/ccworldwide.htm) that, in turn, do business with French performers, distributors and sponsors. In fact, Clear Channel does enough French business yearly to buy almost any of the small towns over which your program broadcasts.
Clear Channel also owns six radio stations in Richmond, Va., including WRVA-AM (1140), home of host Michael Graham — yes, the same Michael Graham who vilified the Byrd Theatre for flying the French flag during VCU’s French Film Festival and encouraged Richmonders to complain. (“Now, the two largest flags flying in Carytown are both French!”) Now might be a good time to call Graham and remind him that his employer does more business in France than the theater does.
Mr. Limbaugh, I have a promise for you: If you will demand through your outlets that the public boycott Clear Channel, I shall willingly give credit where credit is due. I will fully and fairly disclose, if someone tells me about it, that you went beyond your immediate self-interest, to take a position on grounds of conscience. I shall even join with you in calling for the boycott.
Best of luck to you in every good thing.
Sincerely,
Margie Burns"
"An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh
by Margie Burns
Dear Mr. Limbaugh,
I have not heard your widely acclaimed radio broadcasts, but it has come to my attention that you’ve been urging your fans to “PLEASE, BOYCOTT ALL FRENCH PRODUCTS!”
As luck would have it, the perfect target for your boycott is coming up: on June 15 through 22 of this year, France will host the 45th annual Paris Air Show.
The Paris Air Show, as you may know, is a global aviation and arms fair, that takes place in the Paris venue Le Bourget every other year, alternating with another huge trade show for weapons and weapons systems called Eurosatory. You may not have heard that Eurosatory and the Paris Air Show are hugely patronized by the U.S. government and by U.S. military contractors. (http://www.paris-air-show.com)
The list of U.S. exhibitors so far, available from contact person Cara Boulesteix in the Commerce Department, runs 16 pages and more than 200 companies. Many subsidiaries, partnerships and cooperative agreements are not mentioned. Prominently featured are giant military contractors General Electric Co., Boeing, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. Indeed, the list is a virtual who’s who of our corporate federal contractors who are also feverishly hawking (no pun intended) their wares abroad, including Kaiser Aluminum, Goodrich, Teleflex and Bell Helicopter. A glossy tradition of cosmopolitanism in arms and “dual-use” transactions has long been established here, of course: You may recall that Honeywell, Rockwell and Bell Helicopter also were among the dozens of U.S. corporations whose products ended up in Saddam’s Iraq. (www.thememory-hole.org/corp/iraq-suppliers.htm)
Some of the merchant-of-death networking might surprise the public. Several states, including Virginia, are exhibiting at the venue, including Jeb Bush’s Florida, which will be amply represented by “Southwest Florida,” and “Enterprise Florida,” each advertising cheap Florida labor. Speaking of security, Tampa International Airport also is an exhibitor. But then, the Federal Aviation Administration itself attends the air show, as does the American Association of Airport Executives. So any purchases of security systems, military data recorders, night-vision searchlights, cargo and baggage handling systems, communications systems and other devices designed to elude them, take place figuratively under their noses.
Thus far, the FAA has not been grounded. This year, though, the administration is limiting the number of officials attending the show to 150.
Not that the rubbing elbows is confined to current officeholders. Another U.S. exhibitor is Aviall Inc., a giant aviation-parts distributor owned partly by the Carlyle Group, in which the Bush family possesses a substantial interest through former President George H. W. Bush. Not much new there. This would be the same Carlyle Group formerly associated with Saudi Arabia’s giant industrial complex, the Bin Laden Group.
Mr. Limbaugh, I know what you may say: These corporate networks are so intertwined in our lives that no person, even equipped with a conscience, can avoid entanglement. You may point out that even Clear Channel, the communications behemoth whose hundreds of radio stations proudly advertise your talk show, does multimillion-dollar business in France annually. Clear Channel itself, you will say, which banned the Dixie Chicks’ songs on its channels, has radio hosts boosting I-hate-France Web sites and puts you and your boycott on the airwaves, has live entertainment venues in France, and recently won a 12-year, $35 million advertising contract in France. The company owns French subsidiaries (www.clearchannel.ie/ccworldwide.htm) that, in turn, do business with French performers, distributors and sponsors. In fact, Clear Channel does enough French business yearly to buy almost any of the small towns over which your program broadcasts.
Clear Channel also owns six radio stations in Richmond, Va., including WRVA-AM (1140), home of host Michael Graham — yes, the same Michael Graham who vilified the Byrd Theatre for flying the French flag during VCU’s French Film Festival and encouraged Richmonders to complain. (“Now, the two largest flags flying in Carytown are both French!”) Now might be a good time to call Graham and remind him that his employer does more business in France than the theater does.
Mr. Limbaugh, I have a promise for you: If you will demand through your outlets that the public boycott Clear Channel, I shall willingly give credit where credit is due. I will fully and fairly disclose, if someone tells me about it, that you went beyond your immediate self-interest, to take a position on grounds of conscience. I shall even join with you in calling for the boycott.
Best of luck to you in every good thing.
Sincerely,
Margie Burns"
# posted by scorpiorising : 2:40 PM |
No peace in the Middle East.
The Electronic Intifada believes that the U.S. media is ignoring violence against the Palestinians, even as negotiations for peace continue:
"Yet The Guardian's Conal Urquhart reported that "As George Bush talked about peace with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, Israeli soldiers were raiding the refugee camp of Balata and the city of Nablus for the third day running." ("Children shot in third day of Israeli army raids, The Guardian, 5 June 2003)
Urquhart described how "screams echoed around the clinic" in the camp, "as a woman brought her seven-year-old daughter in for treatment. She had been shot in the abdomen by an Israeli soldier" as the Aqaba summit took place. Later the same day, the report said, a boy was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet.
According to the Red Crescent, The Guardian reported, "some 50 people have been treated for bullet and shrapnel wounds" in two days.
Dr. Samir Abu Zarzur, the head of the casualty department at Rafiah hospital in Nablus, said that his department treated 32 people injured by the Israeli army on Tuesday, the day President Bush was meeting the Palestinians' Mahmoud Abbas and other Arab leaders in Sharm Al-Sheikh and urging them to join a struggle against "terrorism."
"Twelve of the injured were children. One eight-year-old was shot in the face with a rubber-coated bullet. A young woman lost her eye and a young man lost a kidney. There are two or three still in a serious condition," The Guardian quoted Abu Zarzur saying.
In a 7 June press release, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS) reported that on 4 June, the day of the Aqaba summit, "A PRCS ambulance on its way to rescue injured people in the Balata Camp was stopped by Israeli soldiers. Soldiers attacked the ambulance, hitting one of the EMTs on the face and head." Under threats of further violence from the soldiers, the ambulance was forced to turn back.
The only US newspaper that we were able to find that reported the events in Balata was Newsday, on 5 June, in a report by the same Conal Urquhart.
The Chicago Tribune's account of the day of the Aqaba meeting was quite different. The paper said, "the day gave rise to hope not only for what happened but also for what did not: There was no major Israeli-Palestinian violence" ("Bush hails good beginning, Chicago Tribune, 5 June 2003). The report made no mention of the three-day long Israeli attack on Balata Camp that caused so many injuries and continued during the Aqaba summit.
Nor did the violence and suffering stop after the summit.
On 5 June, 15 year-old Ibrahim Abu Habla, who had been shot in the eye by Israeli occupation forces in Tulkarm, also near Nablus, on 28 May, died of his wounds, Agence France Presse reported. He had been among a number of children shot with live bullets for throwing stones at the occupier's tanks. ("Palestinian dies of wounds in West Bank," AFP, 5 June, 2003)"
"Yet The Guardian's Conal Urquhart reported that "As George Bush talked about peace with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, Israeli soldiers were raiding the refugee camp of Balata and the city of Nablus for the third day running." ("Children shot in third day of Israeli army raids, The Guardian, 5 June 2003)
Urquhart described how "screams echoed around the clinic" in the camp, "as a woman brought her seven-year-old daughter in for treatment. She had been shot in the abdomen by an Israeli soldier" as the Aqaba summit took place. Later the same day, the report said, a boy was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet.
According to the Red Crescent, The Guardian reported, "some 50 people have been treated for bullet and shrapnel wounds" in two days.
Dr. Samir Abu Zarzur, the head of the casualty department at Rafiah hospital in Nablus, said that his department treated 32 people injured by the Israeli army on Tuesday, the day President Bush was meeting the Palestinians' Mahmoud Abbas and other Arab leaders in Sharm Al-Sheikh and urging them to join a struggle against "terrorism."
"Twelve of the injured were children. One eight-year-old was shot in the face with a rubber-coated bullet. A young woman lost her eye and a young man lost a kidney. There are two or three still in a serious condition," The Guardian quoted Abu Zarzur saying.
In a 7 June press release, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS) reported that on 4 June, the day of the Aqaba summit, "A PRCS ambulance on its way to rescue injured people in the Balata Camp was stopped by Israeli soldiers. Soldiers attacked the ambulance, hitting one of the EMTs on the face and head." Under threats of further violence from the soldiers, the ambulance was forced to turn back.
The only US newspaper that we were able to find that reported the events in Balata was Newsday, on 5 June, in a report by the same Conal Urquhart.
The Chicago Tribune's account of the day of the Aqaba meeting was quite different. The paper said, "the day gave rise to hope not only for what happened but also for what did not: There was no major Israeli-Palestinian violence" ("Bush hails good beginning, Chicago Tribune, 5 June 2003). The report made no mention of the three-day long Israeli attack on Balata Camp that caused so many injuries and continued during the Aqaba summit.
Nor did the violence and suffering stop after the summit.
On 5 June, 15 year-old Ibrahim Abu Habla, who had been shot in the eye by Israeli occupation forces in Tulkarm, also near Nablus, on 28 May, died of his wounds, Agence France Presse reported. He had been among a number of children shot with live bullets for throwing stones at the occupier's tanks. ("Palestinian dies of wounds in West Bank," AFP, 5 June, 2003)"
# posted by scorpiorising : 2:30 PM |
Formal investigation be damned.
It seems that lying in order to drag the U.S. into war is not an offense worthy of a formal investigation, according to certain members of Congress:
Majority Republicans in Congress brushed aside Democratic pleas for a formal investigation into the handling of intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs, saying Wednesday that routine oversight should suffice.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said some of the Democratic criticism of the handling of the intelligence has "been simply politics and for political gain."
Never mind the utter irony of the previous statement by Mr. Roberts, as we all know what the true reasons are for this war, political gain being one of them. It seems they are a little nervous about being found out.
Majority Republicans in Congress brushed aside Democratic pleas for a formal investigation into the handling of intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs, saying Wednesday that routine oversight should suffice.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said some of the Democratic criticism of the handling of the intelligence has "been simply politics and for political gain."
Never mind the utter irony of the previous statement by Mr. Roberts, as we all know what the true reasons are for this war, political gain being one of them. It seems they are a little nervous about being found out.
# posted by scorpiorising : 10:30 AM |
Cannibalsm in North Korea
On a dark note, there is cannibalism, in North Korea.The telegraph.co.uk reports that a disappointing harvest and decrease in international food aid has devasted North Korea's food supply, leading to desperate measures:
Cannibalism is increasing in North Korea following another poor harvest and a big cut in international food aid, according to refugees who have fled the stricken country.
Aid agencies are alarmed by refugees' reports that children have been killed and corpses cut up by people desperate for food. Requests by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to be allowed access to "farmers' markets", where human meat is said to be traded, have been turned down by Pyongyang, citing "security reasons".
I gather from the way the information is presented that this is nothing new, only, it hasn't been widely circulated as news.
News it is though when the U.S. is using food as a bargaining chip, or is it more like a bully withholding someone's breakfast, lunch and dinner:
The WFP says Japan provided 500,000 tons of food aid in 2001, making it the biggest donor, but sent nothing last year. Food aid from America has been cut from 340,000 tons in 2001 to 40,000 tons so far this year. Washington has pledged to send a further 60,000 tons if Pyongyang lifts restrictions on the operations of agencies such as the WFP.
I e-mailed the United Nations World Food Bank (WFP), this e-mail:
Mr. Trevor Rowe,
I would like to know if you would have availabe the shortage in food for North Korea, in terms of tonnage, as far as their ability to feed their people, for the entire year. In other words, how much tonnage of food would it take to feed North Korea, and how much could it possibly be short this coming year, and is the current American policy of the withholding of food reflected in the expected shortage? There was recently this article in telegraph.uk.co talking about cannibalism in North Korea. Given the crisis there, I'm curious as to why there isn't an "appeal" by your organization for North Korea specifically, as there is for Iraq.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Cook
Mr. Rowe is with their public relations. He referred me to a Mr. Gerald Bourke, who wrote back:
Dear Elisabeth,
Trevor Rowe has passed your message to me.
WFP has had a very substantial aid operation in North Korea for several
years, and we appeal every year to the international community to support
it. Between 1995 (when we began) and 2001, the operation was fully funded.
In 2002 donor support faltered, with the result that in the latter months
of the year we were unable to feed as many as 3 million of our 4 million
so-called "core" beneficiaries (primarily children, women and elderly
people). That situation largely persisted until April of this year. Now,
thanks to recent shipments and pledges of food aid, we are resuming
distributions to most of those who were deprived of our rations, and have
sufficient resources in the pipeline to continue feeding them until
October. We constantly convey the needs as we see them to the donor
community, and sincerely hope that the October-December requirement will be
met.
WFP and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation estimate North Korea's
2003 cereals gap - the difference between what the country produces and the
minimum it needs - at just over 1 million tonnes, or 20 per cent of the
requirement. Taking account of expected commercial imports and bilateral
(i.e. not through WFP) donations, we appealed late last year for 511,000
tonnes of commodities for the current year. We now have confirmed
contributions amounting to 315,000 tonnes, and require an additional 80,000
tonnes to be able to fully implement our programme for the remainder of the
year (because we were unable to feed so many in January-April, and because
there is no such thing as retroactive feeding, our overall requirement for
the year is no longer 511,000 tonnes).
The US is not witholding food aid for North Korea. It has been the largest
provider of assistance to the country through WFP since the mid-1990s,
accounting for more than half of the 3.6 million tonnes channeled through
us. It has pledged 40,000 tonnes so far this year, and indicated a
willingness to make available a further 60,000 tonnes.
I hope I have answered your questions. I would be very glad to answer any
others you may have.
Thank you for your interest and support.
Best wishes,
Gerald Bourke
Public Affairs Officer
WFP China (for DPRK)
The information contained in this electronic message and
any attachments is intended for specific individuals or entities,
and may be confidential, proprietary or privileged. If you are
not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately,
delete this message and do not disclose, distribute or copy it to
any third party or otherwise use this message. The content of
this message does not necessarily reflect the official position
of the World Food Programme. Electronic messages are not
secure or error free and may contain viruses or may be delayed,
and the sender is not liable for any of these occurrences. The
sender reserves the right to monitor, record and retain electronic
messages.
Goodness me, I guess he didn't want me to share this e-mail. There are questions here though. If the U.S. isn't withholding food, why dangle 60,000 tons of food, like a carrot on a stick, in front of starving people? I asked that question of Mr. Burke:
Mr. Gerald Bourke,
You say that the U.S. is not withholding food from North Korea. Could you then please respond to this article, from the news.telegraph.co.uk. Here is an excerpt from the article:
The WFP says Japan provided 500,000 tons of food aid in 2001, making it the biggest donor, but sent nothing last year. Food aid from America has been cut from 340,000 tons in 2001 to 40,000 tons so far this year. Washington has pledged to send a further 60,000 tons if Pyongyang lifts restrictions on the operations of agencies such as the WFP.
It appears not only that Washington is withholding food as a form of "diplomacy", but the pledged amount, 100,000 tons if the 60,000 is sent, is 240,000 tons less than what the U.S. contributed last year. Thank you for your response.
Elizabeth
When you go to the home page of the WFP, the emphasis is on Iraq, as it should be. But the starvation of a people to the point of cannabalism ought to be blasted all over the place, and howls of indignation from the WFP, among other organizations. This is a desperately poor country that is dangerous in its desperation. They are thought to possess nuclear weapons. We are beating up diplomatically on a country that has nothing to lose. People with nothing to lose can become suicidal, and homicidal. Compassion is what this country needs, and lots of it.
Cannibalism is increasing in North Korea following another poor harvest and a big cut in international food aid, according to refugees who have fled the stricken country.
Aid agencies are alarmed by refugees' reports that children have been killed and corpses cut up by people desperate for food. Requests by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to be allowed access to "farmers' markets", where human meat is said to be traded, have been turned down by Pyongyang, citing "security reasons".
I gather from the way the information is presented that this is nothing new, only, it hasn't been widely circulated as news.
News it is though when the U.S. is using food as a bargaining chip, or is it more like a bully withholding someone's breakfast, lunch and dinner:
The WFP says Japan provided 500,000 tons of food aid in 2001, making it the biggest donor, but sent nothing last year. Food aid from America has been cut from 340,000 tons in 2001 to 40,000 tons so far this year. Washington has pledged to send a further 60,000 tons if Pyongyang lifts restrictions on the operations of agencies such as the WFP.
I e-mailed the United Nations World Food Bank (WFP), this e-mail:
Mr. Trevor Rowe,
I would like to know if you would have availabe the shortage in food for North Korea, in terms of tonnage, as far as their ability to feed their people, for the entire year. In other words, how much tonnage of food would it take to feed North Korea, and how much could it possibly be short this coming year, and is the current American policy of the withholding of food reflected in the expected shortage? There was recently this article in telegraph.uk.co talking about cannibalism in North Korea. Given the crisis there, I'm curious as to why there isn't an "appeal" by your organization for North Korea specifically, as there is for Iraq.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Cook
Mr. Rowe is with their public relations. He referred me to a Mr. Gerald Bourke, who wrote back:
Dear Elisabeth,
Trevor Rowe has passed your message to me.
WFP has had a very substantial aid operation in North Korea for several
years, and we appeal every year to the international community to support
it. Between 1995 (when we began) and 2001, the operation was fully funded.
In 2002 donor support faltered, with the result that in the latter months
of the year we were unable to feed as many as 3 million of our 4 million
so-called "core" beneficiaries (primarily children, women and elderly
people). That situation largely persisted until April of this year. Now,
thanks to recent shipments and pledges of food aid, we are resuming
distributions to most of those who were deprived of our rations, and have
sufficient resources in the pipeline to continue feeding them until
October. We constantly convey the needs as we see them to the donor
community, and sincerely hope that the October-December requirement will be
met.
WFP and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation estimate North Korea's
2003 cereals gap - the difference between what the country produces and the
minimum it needs - at just over 1 million tonnes, or 20 per cent of the
requirement. Taking account of expected commercial imports and bilateral
(i.e. not through WFP) donations, we appealed late last year for 511,000
tonnes of commodities for the current year. We now have confirmed
contributions amounting to 315,000 tonnes, and require an additional 80,000
tonnes to be able to fully implement our programme for the remainder of the
year (because we were unable to feed so many in January-April, and because
there is no such thing as retroactive feeding, our overall requirement for
the year is no longer 511,000 tonnes).
The US is not witholding food aid for North Korea. It has been the largest
provider of assistance to the country through WFP since the mid-1990s,
accounting for more than half of the 3.6 million tonnes channeled through
us. It has pledged 40,000 tonnes so far this year, and indicated a
willingness to make available a further 60,000 tonnes.
I hope I have answered your questions. I would be very glad to answer any
others you may have.
Thank you for your interest and support.
Best wishes,
Gerald Bourke
Public Affairs Officer
WFP China (for DPRK)
The information contained in this electronic message and
any attachments is intended for specific individuals or entities,
and may be confidential, proprietary or privileged. If you are
not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately,
delete this message and do not disclose, distribute or copy it to
any third party or otherwise use this message. The content of
this message does not necessarily reflect the official position
of the World Food Programme. Electronic messages are not
secure or error free and may contain viruses or may be delayed,
and the sender is not liable for any of these occurrences. The
sender reserves the right to monitor, record and retain electronic
messages.
Goodness me, I guess he didn't want me to share this e-mail. There are questions here though. If the U.S. isn't withholding food, why dangle 60,000 tons of food, like a carrot on a stick, in front of starving people? I asked that question of Mr. Burke:
Mr. Gerald Bourke,
You say that the U.S. is not withholding food from North Korea. Could you then please respond to this article, from the news.telegraph.co.uk. Here is an excerpt from the article:
The WFP says Japan provided 500,000 tons of food aid in 2001, making it the biggest donor, but sent nothing last year. Food aid from America has been cut from 340,000 tons in 2001 to 40,000 tons so far this year. Washington has pledged to send a further 60,000 tons if Pyongyang lifts restrictions on the operations of agencies such as the WFP.
It appears not only that Washington is withholding food as a form of "diplomacy", but the pledged amount, 100,000 tons if the 60,000 is sent, is 240,000 tons less than what the U.S. contributed last year. Thank you for your response.
Elizabeth
When you go to the home page of the WFP, the emphasis is on Iraq, as it should be. But the starvation of a people to the point of cannabalism ought to be blasted all over the place, and howls of indignation from the WFP, among other organizations. This is a desperately poor country that is dangerous in its desperation. They are thought to possess nuclear weapons. We are beating up diplomatically on a country that has nothing to lose. People with nothing to lose can become suicidal, and homicidal. Compassion is what this country needs, and lots of it.
# posted by scorpiorising : 9:17 AM |
We all need hugs.
On the SFgate.com today is a story of an Indian guru who gives hugs:
Mata Amritanandamayi, known to her followers as Amma, the hugging saint, sat in a Castro Valley prayer hall for hours on a throne decorated with silk flowers, accepting flowers and fruit and drawings before giving everyone -- from babes in arms to elderly supplicants -- a hug.
Mata Amritanandamayi, known to her followers as Amma, the hugging saint, sat in a Castro Valley prayer hall for hours on a throne decorated with silk flowers, accepting flowers and fruit and drawings before giving everyone -- from babes in arms to elderly supplicants -- a hug.
# posted by scorpiorising : 9:10 AM |
Focus
I am learning just how important it is to focus. And just as important, what I choose to focus on. Because what I focus on will increase in meaning and importance in my life. We are the creators and architects of our lives. What a strange, novel and scary concept. How does one reconcile with the condition of the world, with my own creative potential. This is a constant and ongoing question. "Energetic progress in the good", as the I Ching says. Using my will to create events in my life, using my will to create. Restraint and reserve where there is potential for anger (there are always exceptions). Mark Morford with the SFgate.com reminds us of what there is to be thankful for, no matter what the apocalypse around you:
Lesbian Wiccans Save America
Because if you don't notice all the fiercely positive glimmers of hope, no one else will
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist Friday, May 30, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is the wild and crazily cute fetish-object success of the Mini Cooper and the minor sensation that is the eco-friendly GOP-smackin' Toyota Prius and the imminent arrival of the insanely funkytiny DaimlerChrysler Smart car in the U.S., maybe, someday soon, let's hope.
There is the surprising population recovery of the gorgeous and once-endangered California condor and record migration numbers of humpback whales this year and the joyous rise of flagrant lesbian tongue kissing on prime-time television especially among young kickass vampire-slaying Wiccan females.
There are, apparently, still plenty of things to give you hope amidst the warmongering and the chaos and the staggering feeling that BushCo and its cronies are simply hell-bent on squeezing this nation into a vicious little spit wad of fear and ennui, all via record budget deficits and staggering unemployment and gutted schools and gutted Medicare and a truly nauseating anti-environment pro-industry agenda and civil rights like an afterthought.
There is, for example, the enduring success of small independent radio, KPFA and KCRW and KALW, shows like "This American Life" and "Visionary Activism" and Joe Frank and "Morning Becomes Eclectic."
Each and every one flying straight in the ugly GOP-drunk face of the monolithic Clear Channel corporate radio monopoly and let's not even mention the appalling upcoming FCC vote next week that will essentially annihilate any last remaining vestiges of variety and choice in major media by allowing corporations to own multiple media outlets within the same market (read: more consolidation, more bloated monopolies), because it's just too damn depressing and we're trying like hell to focus on the positive. (By the way, you can protest the odious vote here).
Because dammit there are, apparently, actual glimmers of sanity and beauty and spirit and they do, apparently, abound, and shimmer, and glow, and survive, and even flourish, though they seem increasingly difficult to locate under the thick suffocating blanket of BushCo nouveau fascism, the general warmongering ethos, a culture of paranoia and fear and CNN parroting Fox News parroting White House spin parroting Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg trials.
But then you turn around and notice that Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" won the Oscar and that "Stupid White Men" has been on the N.Y. Times best-seller list for nearly a year, well into an unprecedented 58th printing, the top-selling nonfiction book of 2002, despite how its publisher reputedly resisted publishing it at all and how its status as massive seller blatantly defies the gross "America loves Bush" PR misrepresentation and you just look and nod quietly and go, well, damn straight.
And then you notice even the best-selling page turners like Dan Brown's religion-slammin' "Da Vinci Code" or maybe Gore Vidal's mandatory "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" or Eric Schlosser's jarring "Fast Food Nation," which delineates just how many reconstituted chemically blasted diseased cows go into your average toxic Big Mac.
And you realize all these books are being read by millions and passed along to millions more and digested by at least some and you think, well, maybe bitter resigned heavy-drinking fatalism isn't really what I need, just yet.
And there's more. Just look. There's the new and tiny and yet when you think about it rather momentous organic/whole-foods section at Safeway and Albertsons.
There is significant progress in organic-food labeling laws and the wondrous advent of door-to-door delivery of fresh local small-farm organic produce to counter noxious big agribiz -- neither of which, admittedly, does much to assuage the excruciating news that we have, via industrial fishing and pollution and general abuse, decimated every single one of the world's biggest and most economically important species of fish by a whopping and rather tragic 90 percent. But hey, at least it's something.
"There is dog rescue. There are yoga studios opening right now in North Dakota and rural Idaho. There are joints like the luscious and straightforward and no-BS Scarleteen teen-sex advice and info site to counter the odious deeply insulting GOP-funded "abstinence only" school programs.
"Six Feet Under." Organic tortilla chips served as a snack on Alaska Airlines. Goodly Bible-gropin' Texans reputedly buying more product from Divine Interventions than any other state. Streaming downtempo on SomaFM. "Spirited Away" on DVD. Bill Moyers back on television.
And on it goes. These are the things you must cling to to thwart the onslaught, to counter the ever-dire forecasts and the flagrant snorting corporate malfeasance and the just-passed $350 billion tax cut that will further bankrupt public schools and gouge Medicare and stab at the heart of Social Security and give a huge extra chunk of gilded cash to the long-suffering uber-rich.
And this is what you must do. Find those things that give you a jolt of encouragement and a sly gleam of bliss and a tiny lick of reassurance that all is not lost even though it probably is but what the hell, do it anyway, see what happens, see if you don't feel just a tiny bit better.
Make your own list. And add to it daily and then work to become a part of the list yourself and then watch as you become a part of someone else's list and they begin to look to you and your divine sly gleam to help them thwart the rampant BushCo idiocy and the incessant madness of the world.
Because no one will notice these things for you. Because noticing them only increases their power and range and potential for revolution. Because you have to stand up and do your own noticing. Because it's socially responsible.
Because who wouldn't love a world with better cars and more illuminating books and gorgeous art-drenched movies and pure untainted foods and more anti-GOP awareness and more radiant bodies and widespread interstate dildo purchases and lesbian Wiccans tongue kissing on TV? Exactly. Focus on the positive, I always say. Or, at least, I really, really should. Hey, it sure beats the alternative."
Lesbian Wiccans Save America
Because if you don't notice all the fiercely positive glimmers of hope, no one else will
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist Friday, May 30, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is the wild and crazily cute fetish-object success of the Mini Cooper and the minor sensation that is the eco-friendly GOP-smackin' Toyota Prius and the imminent arrival of the insanely funkytiny DaimlerChrysler Smart car in the U.S., maybe, someday soon, let's hope.
There is the surprising population recovery of the gorgeous and once-endangered California condor and record migration numbers of humpback whales this year and the joyous rise of flagrant lesbian tongue kissing on prime-time television especially among young kickass vampire-slaying Wiccan females.
There are, apparently, still plenty of things to give you hope amidst the warmongering and the chaos and the staggering feeling that BushCo and its cronies are simply hell-bent on squeezing this nation into a vicious little spit wad of fear and ennui, all via record budget deficits and staggering unemployment and gutted schools and gutted Medicare and a truly nauseating anti-environment pro-industry agenda and civil rights like an afterthought.
There is, for example, the enduring success of small independent radio, KPFA and KCRW and KALW, shows like "This American Life" and "Visionary Activism" and Joe Frank and "Morning Becomes Eclectic."
Each and every one flying straight in the ugly GOP-drunk face of the monolithic Clear Channel corporate radio monopoly and let's not even mention the appalling upcoming FCC vote next week that will essentially annihilate any last remaining vestiges of variety and choice in major media by allowing corporations to own multiple media outlets within the same market (read: more consolidation, more bloated monopolies), because it's just too damn depressing and we're trying like hell to focus on the positive. (By the way, you can protest the odious vote here).
Because dammit there are, apparently, actual glimmers of sanity and beauty and spirit and they do, apparently, abound, and shimmer, and glow, and survive, and even flourish, though they seem increasingly difficult to locate under the thick suffocating blanket of BushCo nouveau fascism, the general warmongering ethos, a culture of paranoia and fear and CNN parroting Fox News parroting White House spin parroting Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg trials.
But then you turn around and notice that Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" won the Oscar and that "Stupid White Men" has been on the N.Y. Times best-seller list for nearly a year, well into an unprecedented 58th printing, the top-selling nonfiction book of 2002, despite how its publisher reputedly resisted publishing it at all and how its status as massive seller blatantly defies the gross "America loves Bush" PR misrepresentation and you just look and nod quietly and go, well, damn straight.
And then you notice even the best-selling page turners like Dan Brown's religion-slammin' "Da Vinci Code" or maybe Gore Vidal's mandatory "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" or Eric Schlosser's jarring "Fast Food Nation," which delineates just how many reconstituted chemically blasted diseased cows go into your average toxic Big Mac.
And you realize all these books are being read by millions and passed along to millions more and digested by at least some and you think, well, maybe bitter resigned heavy-drinking fatalism isn't really what I need, just yet.
And there's more. Just look. There's the new and tiny and yet when you think about it rather momentous organic/whole-foods section at Safeway and Albertsons.
There is significant progress in organic-food labeling laws and the wondrous advent of door-to-door delivery of fresh local small-farm organic produce to counter noxious big agribiz -- neither of which, admittedly, does much to assuage the excruciating news that we have, via industrial fishing and pollution and general abuse, decimated every single one of the world's biggest and most economically important species of fish by a whopping and rather tragic 90 percent. But hey, at least it's something.
"There is dog rescue. There are yoga studios opening right now in North Dakota and rural Idaho. There are joints like the luscious and straightforward and no-BS Scarleteen teen-sex advice and info site to counter the odious deeply insulting GOP-funded "abstinence only" school programs.
"Six Feet Under." Organic tortilla chips served as a snack on Alaska Airlines. Goodly Bible-gropin' Texans reputedly buying more product from Divine Interventions than any other state. Streaming downtempo on SomaFM. "Spirited Away" on DVD. Bill Moyers back on television.
And on it goes. These are the things you must cling to to thwart the onslaught, to counter the ever-dire forecasts and the flagrant snorting corporate malfeasance and the just-passed $350 billion tax cut that will further bankrupt public schools and gouge Medicare and stab at the heart of Social Security and give a huge extra chunk of gilded cash to the long-suffering uber-rich.
And this is what you must do. Find those things that give you a jolt of encouragement and a sly gleam of bliss and a tiny lick of reassurance that all is not lost even though it probably is but what the hell, do it anyway, see what happens, see if you don't feel just a tiny bit better.
Make your own list. And add to it daily and then work to become a part of the list yourself and then watch as you become a part of someone else's list and they begin to look to you and your divine sly gleam to help them thwart the rampant BushCo idiocy and the incessant madness of the world.
Because no one will notice these things for you. Because noticing them only increases their power and range and potential for revolution. Because you have to stand up and do your own noticing. Because it's socially responsible.
Because who wouldn't love a world with better cars and more illuminating books and gorgeous art-drenched movies and pure untainted foods and more anti-GOP awareness and more radiant bodies and widespread interstate dildo purchases and lesbian Wiccans tongue kissing on TV? Exactly. Focus on the positive, I always say. Or, at least, I really, really should. Hey, it sure beats the alternative."
# posted by scorpiorising : 9:02 AM |
Monday, June 09, 2003
Watch this.
I was just able to watch the entire video of speeches on C-span by Howard Dean, Bob Graham and Dennis Kucinich. In terms of passion and focus, no one could touch Kucinich. When he sang a couple of verses of the Star Spangled Banner, all of the tremendous longing I feel for this country to realize its promise of true democracy came flowing out with my tears. I linked to the video below.
# posted by scorpiorising : 6:07 PM |
Dennis Kucinich
I saw Dennis Kucinich, Representative from Ohio and candidate for President, on C-span last night. The event was Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and his annual democratic "Family Picnic". This year's attende's were candidates Dean, Graham, Kucinich, Lieberman & Sharpton. I didn't catch any speeches, but here is where you can go to see a video of the event. Hopefully the video includes the after-speech event, in which a camera and sound man followed Kucinich, and then Dean, recording their interaction with the audience members one-on-one.
The camera and sound man followed Kucinich around for quite some time as he mingled with the crowd. I loved the way he plunged into the crowd alone, and took time with anyone who would listen. He said much that I agree with, sticking with common sensical economic policy desires, health care and universal, anti-war and get the troops home, although this point would probably mean further injustice to Iraq. In contrast, Dean appeared more reticent about talking to people, and at times seemed speechless. He was being led around by a very large, blond woman who appeared to be navigating him to a great extent. I had a dream last night that Dean was wearing a dress. Is this a warning about too much passivity? Vanity? Kucinich was stopped by one older farmer, who said that he (Kucinich) "stirs people." Indeed. If only more would hear him.
The camera and sound man followed Kucinich around for quite some time as he mingled with the crowd. I loved the way he plunged into the crowd alone, and took time with anyone who would listen. He said much that I agree with, sticking with common sensical economic policy desires, health care and universal, anti-war and get the troops home, although this point would probably mean further injustice to Iraq. In contrast, Dean appeared more reticent about talking to people, and at times seemed speechless. He was being led around by a very large, blond woman who appeared to be navigating him to a great extent. I had a dream last night that Dean was wearing a dress. Is this a warning about too much passivity? Vanity? Kucinich was stopped by one older farmer, who said that he (Kucinich) "stirs people." Indeed. If only more would hear him.
# posted by scorpiorising : 5:03 PM |
Sunday, June 08, 2003
And I am reminding myself that scandals involve human beings, with very real foibles, as we all are a mixture of weakness and strength.
# posted by scorpiorising : 5:57 PM |
Our differences.
I have to laugh at myself about the Tauzin debacle, mentioned previously. If my spine is going to tingle for scandal, why not include the demos as well. They have their share of influence peddling. Terry McAuliffe and his stocks, Tom Daschle and his relatives working so close to him they can watch each other wrinkle. I don't know that I have the stamina for scandal though. It's ugly to look at all the time, and I have to vary my mirrors.
There used to be more coverage of scandal. The media used to jump on that shit. Now it smells it to see what political party it is from first. Sometimes it'll just hold its nose and turn away. There's something wrong with that picture, in the sense that as a journalist, you train yourself to dive into shit. At least, that is my ideal vision of what journalists are trained for.
But there needs be more analysis of the reasons for scandal, what the scandals represent and reflect of ourselves, our social structure. We need discussion of how we can make corrections in our social fabric, if necessary, in terms of tweaking our own conscience, and thereby the social structure. We must be careful and cautious that our actions are based on a belief in the well being of our fellow travelers. Am I babbling, a little. I guess I am also softening around the edges. It feels better to be softer and less hard and ideological.
We all get into ruts. Ruts of thinking, ruts of believing. We seldom look at alternative viewpoints that might be different from our own. We seldom attempt understanding. Understanding precludes all war.
I am simplifying. I am lessening.
With Tauzin, it is sad to see a man do a tap dance now to avoid looking at his position. He claims he never heard of Westar. And I never heard of ozone depletion and the horrors of factory faming. But I often deny my awareness of environmental issues. Until it gets really bad, aren't many of us a little too, placid. Or perhaps so angry we can't act. I guess those are my two favorite extremes. How about you?
It's funny how many of us simply aren't yet ready for real changes in our political structure, changes that would lessen the chances of influence peddling. Yet year after year we ask our elected officials to raise, I guess its now billions of dollars, in order to pay for time to try to get our attention. "Hey, over there, there's an election on," with 15 second sound bites because apparently that is the majority of our attention spans for really important issues. "I'll let him think for me," I actually had a friend say something like that. He referred to Bush, that he prefers to let them do the thinking on the war issue, because they know best. They have all that intelligence and stuff to base their decisions on.
I wonder is my friend is feeling a wee bit manipulated by now?
It is so easy to jump in the popular mix. We all want to be accepted and loved. I suppose we all misconstrue our own true needs, at any given time. It is easy to mix up what I need, with what I need to do to make you like me.
Self-defenition is the most important definition of all, eh?
There used to be more coverage of scandal. The media used to jump on that shit. Now it smells it to see what political party it is from first. Sometimes it'll just hold its nose and turn away. There's something wrong with that picture, in the sense that as a journalist, you train yourself to dive into shit. At least, that is my ideal vision of what journalists are trained for.
But there needs be more analysis of the reasons for scandal, what the scandals represent and reflect of ourselves, our social structure. We need discussion of how we can make corrections in our social fabric, if necessary, in terms of tweaking our own conscience, and thereby the social structure. We must be careful and cautious that our actions are based on a belief in the well being of our fellow travelers. Am I babbling, a little. I guess I am also softening around the edges. It feels better to be softer and less hard and ideological.
We all get into ruts. Ruts of thinking, ruts of believing. We seldom look at alternative viewpoints that might be different from our own. We seldom attempt understanding. Understanding precludes all war.
I am simplifying. I am lessening.
With Tauzin, it is sad to see a man do a tap dance now to avoid looking at his position. He claims he never heard of Westar. And I never heard of ozone depletion and the horrors of factory faming. But I often deny my awareness of environmental issues. Until it gets really bad, aren't many of us a little too, placid. Or perhaps so angry we can't act. I guess those are my two favorite extremes. How about you?
It's funny how many of us simply aren't yet ready for real changes in our political structure, changes that would lessen the chances of influence peddling. Yet year after year we ask our elected officials to raise, I guess its now billions of dollars, in order to pay for time to try to get our attention. "Hey, over there, there's an election on," with 15 second sound bites because apparently that is the majority of our attention spans for really important issues. "I'll let him think for me," I actually had a friend say something like that. He referred to Bush, that he prefers to let them do the thinking on the war issue, because they know best. They have all that intelligence and stuff to base their decisions on.
I wonder is my friend is feeling a wee bit manipulated by now?
It is so easy to jump in the popular mix. We all want to be accepted and loved. I suppose we all misconstrue our own true needs, at any given time. It is easy to mix up what I need, with what I need to do to make you like me.
Self-defenition is the most important definition of all, eh?
# posted by scorpiorising : 5:28 PM |
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