Seen at Tea Party rallies

Teabonics.

A solution to expensive Internet hookup and slow downloading

Move to South Korea. Ironic, isn't it, that a leading factor in the US's slow speed is our relative absence of competition? It appears that corporations in the US cheer for raw capitalism except when they don't.

A fucking nightmare

Those of us who are old enough to recall LBJ's repeated assurances about progress in the Vietnam war must be--I know I am--wretching over Obama's plans for Afghanistan. After a "success" in the tiny enclave of Marjah, we're now going to assault a major city, Kandahar. My God, Barack, are you that big an idiot? Are you crazy? Or, worst of all, are you just another American Imperial President?

Well, whadaya know!

Somebody realizes there's a war on in Afghanistan.

Some of my best friends...

but I gotta tell ya, the present administration in Israel is going to drag the US and other western nations into a war with Islam. They're not just violating international law by taking possession of land that they occupied after previous battles, they're doing so in front of us, in front of all decent attempts to reconcile Israeli interests in the area with that of those who've lived there for centuries.

The stock market's reaction to the "health care" bill

The Monday after passage in the House: This has got to tell you something about the terms of --the financial effect of--the legislation, right?

Chris Hedges hedges no bets

So, gang, when/where do we build our commune? And who's in charge of the Molotov cocktails?

I am speechless

Well, not quite. This article evokes a single word: Bravo!

Conservatives and liberals--Together!

Here, as well as AntiWar.com blog (which I regularly cite) is presented articulate and hopeful means of taking back America's war-prone foreign policy. Note that both sources are conservative, because Obama's adoption of militaristic means has lately emasculated the Left's power to demand peace. Is there hope that these two different ideologies can merge and become a force for peace?

Terrorizing ourselves

is the title of a new book that analyzes the US reaction to the 9-11 attacks, reviewed perceptively here.

The long haul

This link, and this, sent to me by my buddy Kyle, author of Metaphor, inter alia, tell me that we're not likely to stop spending billions (and concomitant lives) in Afghanistan very soon. And, no doubt, these expenditures likely are dwarfed by our involvement in Iraq, regardless of Obama's pledge to remove all of our "combat troops" from Iraq in a while.

We're "nation building" these two distant nations while our own crumbles. But there is one saving grace, which can be said of our massive military presence throughout the world: At least it's a job program, and it's directed specifically toward folks who need the money.

Should I be freaking out?

I mean, Merlin Olsen--age 69, which is my age--dies of cancer. Can I be far behind? Okay, Jack Nicklaus and Paul McCartney, who're also my age, are still alive and "kicking," so maybe I should shut up. But Merlin Olsen, the bigger-than-life good guy from Little House on the Prairie? Ouch.

A new dimension of warfare

Now our drones are killing people in Pakistan (on which country we've never declared war--indeed, it's supposedly our ally) who are in the process of rescuing fellow Pakistanis from the rubble of buildings destroyed by a previous drone. This post--this blog--isn't going to change anything, and I wonder if by writing this I'm simply dispelling (or is it diffusing or defusing?) the rage I feel at our military and its commander-in-chief. This madness must stop, but I feel powerless to do anything but gripe, particularly since our congressperson, Lois Capps, yesterday voted against Dennis Kucinich's House resolution calling for quick withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan.

Letter to the editor

The following is a letter I wrote to the editor of the SB News-Press. I'll update this post if/when it's published. (My first version omitted Iraq and Afghanistan as national crises, which I added by an amended letter to the editor. I surely hope they publish the amended version, because the omission of those two items by me in the original draft shows how deftly those issues have dropped from the public's--and my--consciousness, from crises to mere blips on the national psyche.)

Update: The letter (somewhat revised by the News-Press) was published on March 17, 2010.

Because the News-Press limits the length of these letters, I’ll try to squeeze my list of current global and national crises into 250 words.

Global crises: Atmospheric and oceanic warming. Declining oil reserves. Destruction of rain forests. Increasing species extinction. Diminishing saltwater fisheries. Decaying coral reefs. Shrinking natural habitats. Melting glaciers and icecaps. Increasing freshwater shortages. Growing wealth inequality. Spreading international terrorism and militarism. Ongoing nuclear proliferation. Worldwide overpopulation. Rising religious and immigrant intolerance. Continuing scourge of AIDS/malaria/poverty. Unabated political corruption.

National crises: Meltdown of financial sector. Rising unemployment and declining wages. Increasing homelessness. Continuing media consolidation. Impoverished local governments. Skyrocketing federal deficits and borrowing. Growing corporate influence over elections. Declining value of dollar. Continued outsourcing of manufacturing/technical jobs. Spreading child and adult obesity. Shrinking middle class. Widening income disparity. Restriction of civil liberties and growth of government secrecy. Congressional gridlock. Diminished charitable giving. Decline of retirement savings and real estate values. Ballooning home foreclosures. Increasing privatization of the military. North Korea. Iran. Iraq. Afghanistan. Crumbling infrastructure. Increasing costs of living, credit and health care.

Well, I did it. However, I’ve listed only conditions that have appeared lately in the media, and only those that strike me as critical. There are likely scores more, depending on the knowledge and viewpoint of the observer.

My point is this: All these crises have arisen on our watch, while we American Boomers enjoyed the most sustained period of prosperity the world has ever known. Anybody besides me feel guilty?

Judy Collins

"Both sides..." Ouch.

Straight out of James Bond

Check out this extended analysis of why US administrations--all of them, including Obama's--are getting more and more involved in Yemen's activities, and it's not about al Qaeda, but rather about control of oil shipments and containing China. Could this be true? If so, I feel like such an idiot, a typical American idiot.

If Bush is a war criminal

what does this make Obama?

I'm no Libertarian...

but once again Justin Raimondo has nailed it when it comes to America's ongoing militarism, historically and immediately. What a waste, what an outrage. What a shame.

What do you think?

As much as I disagree with this writer's notion that capitalism heals all economic ills, I must say that his analysis of "deleveraging" and his sense of the future of US and international markets is spot on. There are so many commercial enterprises, even here in SB, that are dropping away from the marketplace (witness the many shuttered retail outlets along State Street), that it's hard not to foresee another huge string of real estate losses in the commercial area and, as this will take another few years to even out, an ongoing restructuring of our economy.

What I don't agree with is the writer's idea that government should simply stand by and do nothing as this occurs. Although so far the government's failures have been monumentally ineffective, I can't stand to allow the poor and middle-class to suffer as this all plays out. I believe the government must take steps to alleviate the agonies of the masses, even if this means more American debt, because, as the writer says, it's likely the sustained global uncertainties will mean that our dollar-based debt instruments will continue to be the "safe haven" for worldwide lenders, most notably, China.

Food for thought

What do you think about this? Positive, negative or crazy?