The long road home

With the recent election of a reactionary to the Senate from Massachusetts, our most liberal state, the message was clear: The power of monied advertising can create the message, spread the message and indoctrinate the electorate against the force of reality, truth, decency. And now, in today's opinion, the Supreme Court (5-4) has overturned decades of precedent to allow unlimited corporate influence in elections. It's all over now but the shouting--from TV sets, Internet sites, everywhere big money reigns.

A vital question

that's rarely asked; and the answer to which seems obvious to this writer. Your answer(s)?

Before you suicide...

read this.

Ah! Now we've got him!

The following is a slightly-revised version of a letter I sent to the NewsPress yesterday. I'll update this blog if/when it's published.

Update: It turns out the photo the Feds used to show an aged bin Laden wasn't of bin Laden at all, but of a Spanish official--and he's pissed off. Can this saga of the pursuit of bin Laden get any weirder?

Further update: The letter was published in the SB NewsPress on/about January 19, 2010.

To the editor:

Extra! Extra!

Using the highest-tech digital methodology, the Feds have now updated the Wanted-Dead-or-Alive photos of bin Laden to show his aging during the many years we've been hunting him. (It's been way more than a decade, folks; he's been wanted at least since 1998, for the US embassy bombings in Africa).

Well, there's no doubt now: bin Laden's days as a free man are surely numbered. Those folks in the AfPak mountains are sure to finger him for us, now that they recognize him. For years they've been uncertain about the identity of that six-foot-four Arab living amongst them with his arsenal of weapons and teams of bodyguards, some of whom may be hauling along a kidney-dialasis machine for their boss. The locals no doubt have been hesitant to claim the $25,000,000 reward because of this uncertainty. But now, with the CIA's new PhotoShop effort, the data will come streaming in and the Predator Drones will soar, their target firmly fixed.

At long last, a serious question at a news conference

Hurrah for Helen Thomas.

For the video, go here.

The good news just keeps pouring in

Like this LA Times article about the prospects of making a living as a freelance writer.

Bravo!

In in-depth articulation of the cruelty/madness that is American foreign policy, now and for the last one hundred years.

What's in a name?

Does it matter that MNF-1 is now USF-1? Apparently not, except for t-shirts and Twitter, there's no difference.

As if we didn't have troubles enough around the globe,

now it's dust.

Too funny

The secrets of NASCAR racing revealed in this lucid, compelling video.

Try not to get too unglued

I've not gotten swept up in the healthcare debate/debacle in this blog, but this chart displays facts that are so maddening that I can't help myself. You've got to click on the chart to enlarge it, but when you do, weep or gnash your teeth or do something, anything, just to prove you're alive. (If, under our healthcare system, you still are.)

Mental illness?

For some reason, this morning I was websurfing and found myself visiting sites about Alan Turing, the genius mathematician. I believe I had begun my surfing with an article about autism and some reference was made to the possibility that Turing suffered from that affliction, although according to the several sites I visited about Turing not many mentioned that possibility. But I must say, Turing's life--his immensely interesting life and tragic death--made me think he may well have been autistic. Indeed, after my surfing, I thought what an amazing movie his life would make. (It has been made into a play, I understand.)

This evening I opened my NetFlix packet to watch the movie therein, not recalling what movie I'd rented, and to my amazement that movie was "A Beautiful Mind," about another afflicted scientist, John Nash.

I'm positive my morning surfing was done without conscious knowledge of what movie I'd NetFlixed for that evening. (My NetFlix plan allows me only one movie at a time, and this movie I'd rented weeks ago and had lying on my table unviewed over the holidays. I'd seen the movie before, but barely remembered it, having viewed it only once upon its release eight years ago.)

Two questions: First, was my subconscious at work this morning? Second, must one be mad to be a genius, or does it just help?

What the aughts were not.

Here's a brilliant essay about the decade that is about to pass into history, and why it perfectly forecasts the demise of what we thought was America.

Wouldn't you think they'd change the cover?

I mean, how hard can it be? Talk about bad timing.

If you think my last post about Obama's war policies was too harsh

check out this article at TomDispatch.

"Rope a hope"

Here's the text of a letter to the editor I've emailed today to the SB NewsPress. I'll update if/when it's published.

Update: It was published on December 18, 2009.

Who is he? Is Obama a war president or an envoy of peace? You can’t tell from his Oslo speech, its eloquent phrases belied by his escalation of the Afghan war. Is he a man of the people, or is he in the grasp of Wall Street and insurance-company influence? With all his common-man rhetoric, he throws billions to bail out banksters and refuses to support single-payer health care. Does he favor transparency in government? If so, why does his administration continue Bush’s secrecy policies? In short, is Obama truly the agent of “change” or is he the purveyor of “more of the same”?

Many of his supporters—including this writer—who campaigned ardently for him a year ago are more than merely disappointed or dismayed. We look to Obama’s deeds, no longer to his words, and feel betrayed. Indeed, we now understand (to paraphrase Muhammad Ali’s phrase after his victory over George Foreman in Zaire) we’ve become the victims of “rope a hope.”

A new slogan

to describe Obama's repeated failures to live up to his campaign rhetoric--and our sensation at having been betrayed by him--taken from Ali's boxing victory over Foreman in Zaire: "Rope a hope."

Afghaniconsternation

I wonder: Did Obama make his troop-increase announcement out of a firm belief that it was the best way to deal with Afghanistan and "terrorism"; or did he do so because he believed it was politically beneficial? Which causes me to ask this: Which is more frightening?

Talk about recycling!

Here's a solution to America's obesity problem.

Sometimes, other folks say it better than I

This is one of those times.