May 12, 2011
May 11, 2011
Life & Death: Corporate personhood & old folks homes in South Berkeley
One thing that I’ve been noticing recently is that there are a large number of “assisted living facilities” operating in South Berkeley right now. Fascinated by the concept of why so many of them have located in this particular section of my home town, I decided to investigate.
“How come there are so many rest homes located here?” was the question that I had planned to ask as I began my grand tour of the old folks homes of South Berkeley. There must be at least seven or eight of them right within blocks of where I live — not to mention two rather large HUD-sponsored senior-citizens housing complexes also located nearby.
I got my answer at the very first assisted-living facility that I went to. “About sixty or eighty years ago when most of these places were built,” said a nurse at the front desk of a rest home over on Ashby Avenue, “land in South Berkeley was relatively inexpensive — and so people started building facilities in this area. But even more important than that is the fact that all these facilities are very close to one of the major hospitals in the region — Alta Bates.” Duh! I shoulda known that! Two out of four of my children were born at Alta Bates. I used to take my kids to its ER when they occasionally broke bones while roughhousing with the rest of our housing project’s 40-odd mini-thugs. Of course.
“Actually, the larger facilities that you see around here are only the tip of the iceberg. There might be upwards of fifty more of them located in South Berkeley — small units, family-run, holding only a few elders at a time.”
I also talked with some of the residents at the rest homes I visited. Most of them liked the one they were staying in, said the staff was nice and that the food was good. But one older woman — who declined to tell me her age but looked to be almost a hundred years old — was sitting in her wheelchair out in front of one facility, seriously contemplating making her getaway!
“I hate it here!” she cried. “The food is lousy!” Apparently as one gets older and more frail, and one can’t do all that other stuff one used to do easily, then eating and food become more and more important. Although food has ALWAYS been important to me. And when I was embedded in Iraq, food was the number-one hot topic among the Marines. I loved Iraq! Everyone there loved to talk about food and the Dining Facilities there were absolute works of art! My kind of people. But I digress. Plus everyone else I talked with at this elderly lady’s facility loved the food so maybe she was just having a bad-hair day.
But as I toured old folks home after old folks home here in South Berkeley and saw dozens of elderly people in the last stages of their lives as they waited around for the Big One, there was something odd that I noticed — something that was missing. I hadn’t seen any elderly corporations sitting around in the hallways and reception rooms of these places, also waiting to die.
I saw no General Electric, no Monsanto and certainly no Koch Brothers Industries or Citizens United — waiting patiently for their inevitable ends to come. Why is that? If corporations are legal personhoods, why do THEY get to escape from the Grim Reaper and live forever while the rest of us “persons” do not?
PS: The developers who appear to dominate the Berkeley City Council these days are always talking about trying to turn West Berkeley’s industrial area into another Silicon Valley. Why don’t they alternatively follow South Berkeley’s example and turn it into another “Assisted Living Valley” instead.
Not only that, but we could build a whole bunch of high-quality medical centers here for the new rest homes to be satellites off of. I mean seriously — what doctor wouldn’t just LOVE to live here in Berkeley? Plus we already got all those bio-medical research companies here. And how about a west-coast branch of the Mayo Clinic? Plus UC Berkeley could open a hot new medical school here — there’s now a crying need for trained doctors and even Cuba is having trouble keeping up with the demand. Plus perhaps all those huge blood-sucking healthcare insurance companies could find a home here as well? Nah. West Berkeley is too far away from K Street.
BTW, I just aced playing a role as “Main Zombie” in a recent student film shot at a local digital arts school. And I bet you anything that when America’s major healthcare insurance companies see me all dressed up in my zombie costume, they will surely want to hire me — since they already have a strong passion for creating armies of uninsured healthcare Undead.
PPS: I just finished reading “The Portable Dorothy Parker” and it seems that Parker, who had made innumerable attempts at suicide during her lifetime including drinking a whole bottle of shoe polish, had finally come to the conclusion that it was actually a good thing that life was so painful for her.
“If it wasn’t for life’s pain and unhappiness — then how would we know that we’re alive?” When you stop feeling the slings and arrows that life throws at you, then that means you are dead. So be happy for any misery that comes your way. Why? Because it reminds you that you are still alive — and not the alternative.
PPPS: But on the other hand, never fear death either. “Tis a far, far better place I go to….” Death, like birth, is a whole new adventure, one that is to be looked forward to and cherished as one of the great road-markers of life.
And perhaps corporate personhoods should also give death a try — in order to prove that they too are human and not just zombies feeding off the blood and guts of we the living.
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May 10, 2011
Revisiting the Ox-Bow Incident
If (subjunctive mood) a country of wild warriors used the concept of spreading “freedom of speech” as a red herring for wars of aggression disguised as altruistic wars for humanitarian reasons and the dissemination of democracy in despotic lands, would anyone be surprised if a fellow, who believed the “tell it like it is” meme, was soundly condemned for providing an opposing point of view?
Progressive talk radio host Mike Malloy has become embroiled in such an oxymoron situation because he mused (on air) about the possibility that George W. Bush ordering of some military action which precipitated a massive amount of collateral damage in the form of civilian death and injury augmented by a massive amount of damage to the host country’s infrastructure might have an amazing degree of similarity to Hitler’s methodology, which is often exemplified by the unfortunate and regrettable bombing of Rotterdam. The authorities in Rotterdam had sent word to the German military that Rotterdam was to be accorded “open city” status. Regrettably that bit of intelligence was not relayed in a timely manner to the troops and Rotterdam was reduced to rubble.
Freedom of Speech was one of the four Freedoms for which the United States fought in World War II. Therefore the thought that some über-patriotic members of the Teabag branch of the Republican Party would not apply the old “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” philosophy to some freewheeling, stream-of-consciousness dialogue is an incomprehensible contradiction, but like the WMD’s, the word that Rotterdam was an open city, and the science fiction stories about polar bears facing extinction because folks are running their vacuum cleaners too often, a miscommunication occurred and people have challenged Malloy not for the fact-checking reasons but because they wanted to apply the Archie Bunker rule: “Stifle!”
Inadvertently, Malloy’s efforts to point out the philosophical oxymoron have only goaded his critics into some overzealous examples of their own subjunctive mood speculation that comes perilously close to being un-Christian threats against the health of him and his family. Obviously this situation is not the time for Malloy to echo the “Bring it on!” Bush style swagger.
Is there a teabagger who hasn’t read Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s classic novel, “The Ox-Bow Incident”? Shouldn’t Malloy calmly and rationally use that example of American pop culture to subtly point out the error of their aggressive rebuttals? Isn’t it über-ironic that they should be attacking him for exorcizing one of the rights they are prepared to die for to defend?
Perhaps, Malloy’s lapse in logic is his assumption that the “We’re just good patriotic Americans” crowd is castigating him for using his right to freedom of speech?
This may sound a tad “conspiracy-theory-nut”-ish, but could it (that pesky subjunctive mood rears its ugly head again) be that the folks who are sending him the acerbic missives are radical Muslims disguising themselves as teabaggers to carry out a fatwa against Malloy ordered by some mullah? Don’t all mullah’s look alike in their turbans and robes?
Don’t death threats sound more Sharia law-ish than something that patriotic Americans would advocate as a response to the opposing point of view?
Aren’t the real members of the teabag movement sending e-mails to their fellow travelers urging them to do a bit of stealth Malloy monitoring as a way to prove conclusively that the are reluctantly endorsing “freedom of speech”? Did Hitler encourage Germans to listen to foreign broadcasts to experience first hand their political propaganda? Heck no! The German authorities authorized to carry ammunition (Schutz-Saffel) feared that any such contact with the Allied Forces would produce a St. Paul’s moment. Did the Germans have freedom of speech or second amendment rights to carry arms?
So if the Germans were against those rights, doesn’t that mean that Teabaggers would automatically take the opposing point of view if some nefarious group tried to silence free speech in the USA? Of course! Hence the people trying to silence Malloy must be people who hate Malloy’s expression of freedom? Who did George W. Bush say hated Americans and attacked the World Trade Center because of their freedoms? Didn’t he say that America’s freedoms were precisely the reason for that attack?
Well, then, is it not obviously logical to conclude that the people who want to censure Malloy for using his inalienable (always blame it on aliens, eh?) rights must be foreigners and possible Mullah directed automatons carrying out a fatwa sanctioned by Sharia Law?
The fact that the phrase “Christian fatwa” is an oxymoron only serves to add a bit of redundant proof that the folks condemning Malloy’s use of American freedoms must be un-American.
Any minute now the posse of lefty pundits will arrive and say: “Back off! Malloy was just saying: ‘In a perfect world, unintended collateral damage has consequences.’” It’s not like Malloy was delivering a blanket condemnation of vigilante justice for Osama. He was just using sarcasm to draw attention to the numerous parallels between Bush’s agenda and that of the fellows who were convicted at Nuremberg. Does Dick Cheney have a world famous art collection?
The other Liberal talk show hosts aren’t going to hang Malloy out to dry, are they? That would be like in the movie “Cool Hand Luke” when Luke (Paul Newman) turns to Dragline (George Kennedy) for some moral support and gets a shrug and “Don’t look at me, mother” reply.
Heck, if Bush had done something wrong, wouldn’t the World Court send some law enforcement guys to Texas (or would the Texas Rangers provide some “interline courtesy” and make the collar for them?) and drag him back to their country for a new war crimes trial? They haven’t, so everything must be copasetic.
Younger Americans should be encouraged to tune into Malloy and listen in a non judgmental mode because years from now, Malloy may well be considered a noteworthy example of the radio personality in American culture.
What young American wouldn’t appreciate the hypothetical opportunity to turn on a radio tonight and tune into XERB and listen to Wolfman Jack? Does Serious Radio have a Wolfman channel? Could listening to Malloy be compared to hearing Jean Sheppard’s radio program? Are today’s disk jockey couples trying to walk a mile in the moccasins of Tex and Jinx Faulkinberg?
Whatever.
If, as a renowned clergyman from Oakland is predicting, the world is going to end later this month, [Note: the World’s Laziest Journalist, an ordained minister, is trying to intercede and get a stay of execution order issued via prayers and supplications.] shouldn’t folks be loading their memory banks up with “once in a lifetime” experiences to replay in Heaven rather than disputing Mike Malloy’s idea that Americans are not entitled to a “Get out of Jail” card for war crimes?
In “Cool Hand Luke,” the captain said: “What we have here is . . . failure to communicate.”
Now the disk jockey will play the Doors song “Soft Parade,” “the ballad of Ruben Carter,” and Ernie Ford’s “Shotgun boogie.” We have to go bail a friend out of jail. Have a “How many fingers, Winston?” type week.
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May 9, 2011
“Go ahead – shoot me!”
The assertion that statistically the most common quote attributed to people who had been murdered via shooting was “Go ahead – shoot me!” made this columnist wonder how the number scientists had come up with that conclusion. Then we leaped to the assumption that they must have asked people being accused of doing the deed; “What did the victim say?”
The recent news stories about a Wikileaks revelation that al Qaeda have warned Americas that if Osama got whacked, rubbed out, or off-ed, their preferred form of retaliation would be in the form of a nuclear device.
In all the commotion in recent history over terrorism, we’ve lost count of the exact number of actual terrorist attacks aimed against the United States. Some of the more paranoid members of the lunatic conspiracy theory community have alleged that the Oklahoma City bombing had stealth links to foreign terrorists. A different branch (dividians?) of loons thinks that TWA flight 800 was struck by a surface to air missile.
Should the events of September 11, 2001 be counted as one coordinated attack or several separate attacks?
Some of the fellows wearing “9-11 was an inside job” T-shirts don’t think that the attacks on the World Trade Center should be counted as the work of terrorists.
Whatever the exact number is; it’s obvious that America’s leaders either don’t think that a nuclear response to the hit on bin Laden is possible, or, if it is, it won’t matter in the overall assessment by future historians studying George W. Bush’s “Forever War.”
America will, alone if necessary, stride forward [like Marshal Will Kane (Garry Cooper) in the movie “High Noon”] to face the bad guys with stoical determination.
In literary circles, there is an urban legend that Owen Wister (not Whistler like the guy who painted his mother) offered $100 (a considerable amount of money at that time) for any fact checker who could provide a contemporary newspaper account of a movie style “drawdown” example of gunplay. No one ever collect the money.
The shootout at the OK corral was more like a horse era drive by shooting than anything staged and choreographed by George Stevens and his cinematographer.
In “The Man who shot Liberty Valance,” a mild mannered lawyer is perceived to be a hero who shot a bad guy in self defense and parlays that into a lifetime series of political triumphs. The man who actually did shoot Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) remains anonymous. Since some pundits have asserted that the Osama hit will provide President Obama with a surge in popularity that will propel him to a second term, there might be an opportunity to add some contemporary political commentary to a nostalgic column reassessing that almost forgotten John Ford classic film.
Could a clever writer produce a column about the shootout at the bin Laden compound corral and make it sound like a parody of Ernst Hemingway’s short story titled “The Killers”?
In the 1940 film “The Bank Dick,” W. C. Fields, under the scriptwriting pseudonym of Mahatma Kane Jeeves, included a bit that permitted the comedian to spoof the concept of using a gun under his coat for a fast-draw emergency situation.
Didn’t famed film critic (and one time Berkeley CA resident?) Pauline Kael succinctly express Hollywood’s love affair with gunplay in a collection of her movie reviews titled: “Kiss, kiss, bang, bang”?
The opening sequence in “Lord of War” (an underappreciated classic) portrayed the life of a single bullet.
Wasn’t “the single bullet theory” invented by Arlen Specter?
Which brings us to: “Back and to the left!”
What ever happened to the plans to film the story of Giuseppei Zangara and his fast tracked appointment with death?
Isn’t using a President for target practice a sure fire (pun?) way to vault to fame and a prominent place in the Contemporary American Culture Hall of Fame? Just ask Leon Czolgosz and/or Charles Julius Guiteau.
American cultural imperialism is based on the films from Hollywood and isn’t gunplay an integral part of that form of entertainment? Wasn’t one of the first films about a train robbery?
Didn’t movie script writers mine the field of murder with a gun to great advantage?
Where would Hollywood be today if they didn’t tell the stories of the gunslingers and their victims? Who doesn’t know about Harry K. Thaw, Sacco and Vanzetti, Al Capone, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Charlie Starkweather, and Gavrilo Princip, the man whose bullets cause several million deaths? Didn’t someone once say that Guns are as American as apple pie?
Since, for their own protection, the identities of the Seals who did the shooting in the bin Laden compound must remain secret, that means that the story will be in the public domain and not sold as part of a “life story” deal for anyone of the men who were there. What Hollywood producer doesn’t love material (ripe for fictionalization) that doesn’t require the use of a large “rights” payment? How many film versions of the bin Laden caper will be made? Will it be five or six? In all the excitement, even the Hollywood Reporter might loose track of the exact number. Which version will catch the public’s fancy? Now, potential producers have to ask themselves one more question. “Do I feel lucky?”
Did any of the accounts of the termination of bin Laden’s command (with extreme prejudice) report what his last words were? Did he say “Top of the world, ma!” or did he say “The Horror! The Horror!”
How many liberal Californians decorated their hippie pads with the poster that showed California Governor (and former actor) Ronald Reagan in a cowboy costume with a drawn six-shooter and the dialogue balloon that read: “Thanks for the votes, suckers!”?
Some folks wonder why the Conservative Christians in the Teabag Party embrace guns.
Teabaggers are not given proper credit for promoting the sentiment of: “Shoot if you must, this old gray head, but spare your country’s flag.”
Mao Tse-tung has said: “Every Communist must grasp the truth: ‘Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Amen!
The disk jockey has lost count of all the good “shoot-em-up” songs and so he’ll play these classic American songs:
“Theme from ‘High Noon’” by Frankie Lane
“Stagger Lee”
“Frankie and Johnny”
Gene Pitney’s “(The Man who shot) Liberty Valance?”
“Bang Bang” by Cher
“The Long Black Veil” by Johnny Cash
The Johnny Cash song with the “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die” line
What was the name of that Johnny Cash song about a gun fighter with dementia who wanders into modern day automobile traffic thinking he is going to face an outlaw and former member of Quantrill’s Raiders?
The theme from “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”
Loren Green’s song “Ringo”
“I Hate Mondays”
“Guns, guns, guns” by the Guess Who (that’s the band’s name and not a challenge) and, of course, a bunch of Ennio Morricone film scores.
We have to go to the shooting range and hone our self-defense skills.
Have a “never ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way” type week.
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Right-Wing Sock Puppets Pretending to Be Liberals Assault Progressive Websites
Ignorant, peevish, narrow-minded, misinformed, livid, intolerant, they are an army of everything that’s wrong with America, denizens of a weird trickster God who speaks to them with words they don’t completely understand, or tints their natural interior wrath with righteous anger conferred by snake-oil preachers or haughty cable charlatans either crass or crazed, or just slyly in it for the money, or all of the above.
This minority wouldn’t matter much except they are whipped into a frenzy and ‘played’ by cynical manipulators like Frank Luntz, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck who, in turn, wouldn’t have much impact without the billions of dollars spent to spread their fetid message from such right-wing corporatists as Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers.
But beneath the second-tier video fictions of James O’Keefe and Andrew Breitbart, and the hollow-headed bleating of the various ozone-inhabiting creatures who will never be president like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, and even in the shadow of the disingenuous theocratic mushpile that is David Barton’s twisted view of our history, exists a well-funded Republican netherworld of PR propagandists and marketing hucksters busy dreaming up unethical new ways to undercut Obama and the Democrats.
One of these is Doug Goetzloe, an anti-tax right-wing talk show host and former Young Republican who heads up Advantage Consultants. Here is the copy from one of his ads advising his conservative clients to ‘flood the zone’ on progressive sites:
“Are you ready for a blog attack?
“Get ahead of your opponent with Professional Blog Warriors.
“Be prepared to ‘flood the zone’ with comments from professionals who are ready to put your talking points on the blogosphere 24/7.
“Whether it’s defense or offense, Advantage Consultants has a dedicated team of experienced blog warriors ready to advance your candidate or campaign.
“Why wait for the attack? Launch your attack with a battery of blog and forum comments aimed at all media and blog sites in your district.
“Contact us today and let us show you the Advantage in professional blog warfare.”
Then there’s Chip Griffin, head of the now defunct NetVocates that planted comments as Advantage Consultants does back in 2005, and is still a Republican activist and PR man who was once associated with the far-right TownHall.com. Griffin is no doubt back on the scene as a sock-puppet master for the 2012 elections — it’s what he does for a living.
A poster named TomCADem recently made these points at Democratic Underground:
“However, what is often ignored are right wing/corporate funded political operatives generating attacks on Democrats from the ‘left’ while giving Republicans a free pass. Of course, these operatives do not announce their intentions, but instead simply launch attacks on Democrats from the left while largely ignoring the far more extreme positions of Republicans or suggesting that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. However, occasionally, such operatives are caught engaging in these fraudulent acts.
“The question in 2012 with Republicans and corporate American intent on taking back the White House, killing unions, and privatizing Medicare, [is] how far will Republicans and corporate propaganda groups go in their efforts to organize sock puppet attacks on Democrats from the left in order to undermine support for Democrats among liberals?”
– Posted in “‘Liberal’ Sock Puppets – Right Wing/Corporate Operatives Attacking Democrats From The ‘Left’,” April 26, 2011.
How far? The GOP is desperate to enact their anti-democratic corporate agenda as quickly as possible as they know the general public is catching onto them — they will go as far as mountains of corporate money and a total lack of conscience or ethics will take them.
Some on the progressive side are already well aware that the GOP is, and has been at least since 2005, mounting a large and well-funded campaign to plant phony ‘progressives sick of the Dems’ comments on various liberal sites to split the vote. Their masters know the psychology well: a percentage of the population, no matter what their politics, is ‘suggestible,’ meaning if they read a string of comments excoriating ALL Democrats as frauds and liars, that will become their opinion, if nothing to the contrary is offered. These ‘suggestibles’ are not necessarily stupid, but they do readily conform to whatever opinion is dominant. That’s why the GOP, through their paid operatives, flood progressive sites with so-called ‘former Democrats’ and ‘angry progressives’ who do nothing but harp on how horrible the Democrats and Obama are. It’s insidious and underhanded, but look at who’s doing it — the party of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. All of them were elected on a promise of jobs and better times, only to use their office to reward the wealthy with tax cuts and lucrative contracts privatizing public services at the expense of middle-class families who work for a living.
At one time, some of the ‘tells’ of the right-wing ‘sock puppet’ troll was their use of terms such as ‘DemoRATS’ or ‘Demonrats’ for Democrats, and their repeatedly calling Obama ‘Obummer,’ ‘Obomber’ or ‘Obomba.’ But they’ve mostly changed that language as actual progressives began to notice those repeated constructions and the fetid and simpleminded opinions attached to them. Some current ‘tells’ are when they don’t mention the GOP at all, or claim both parties are just as ‘evil,’ or try to shut down the conversation with insults, or push readers to vote for any third party, or say that they’d rather vote for a Republican than a Democrat, or make statements with no factual basis, or refer you to a right-wing website to ‘confirm’ their assertions.
Incidentally, there is no comparable effort by the left: if you try to post comments opposing the GOP or corporatists at right-wing sites, in most cases you will quickly be banned from posting there and your comments removed. They aren’t about to let the other side play their game on them, even if we had the money to fund such slimy baloney and the inclination to do so.
Our only protection against such ersatz assaults is to use our heads and common sense: if someone is a little ‘too’ enraged at Obama and the Democrats, be suspicious, especially if they never talk about Republicans. Ask them a couple of polite intelligent questions on the comment thread’s topic; if they respond by condemning or insulting you for questioning them rather than engaging you, they’re likely a sock-puppet troll; it’s in their nature to consider any question or disagreement as tantamount to treason. Also, if they keep reposting basically the same idea in one comment thread, they’re probably a sock-puppet troll; they’ve been instructed by their masters that repetition works. And don’t be swayed if they accuse you of being a ‘shill’ or ‘troll’ for questioning them — they are trained to do that.
Finally, always remember: you can pretend to be a progressive, but you can’t pretend to be smart, and these paid ‘blog warriors’ decidedly aren’t.
“The key point is that ever since the Reagan years, the Republican Party has been dominated by radicals — ideologues and/or apparatchiks who, at a fundamental level, do not accept anyone else’s right to govern.”
– Paul Krugman, “The Politics of Spite,” NY Times, Oct. 5, 2009.
Copyright © 2011 RS Janes.
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May 8, 2011
Ye Olde Scribe Presents: Magic Bull It Theories
Picture courtesy jdfarms.com
Pundits and politicians lining up to deliver conspiracy laden talking points.
Now that our illegitimate, darkie, leader has successfully hidden the fact his placenta was cut off out of the You S Uv Ay, probably in the country known as Fonzieland… (“Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!”), and his gang of thug supporters went back in time to photoshop his “long” form, also providing him a previous to Osama’s death unknown huge set of cojones… on to the next witless, oops, YOS meant to type “witness-less,” conspiracy…
Now the “true story” can be told.
It all started on a grassy knoll.
(more…)
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May 7, 2011
May 6, 2011
On the road to the Beat Museum?
The idea that certain bath salts can be used in a pipe as a substitute for hash or crack is slowly trickling upwards from the drug culture underground to the mainstream media and that story will soon be getting the attention of the assignment editors at the various evening news broadcasts and that, in turn, means that the chess match clock will soon be measuring the conservative reaction time. Once conservatives realize (by doing a Google news search for “smoking bath salts”?) that it is a legitimate current events problem topic, Uncle Rushbo and his wannabe imitators will be (like a pit crew changing all four tires) expected to instantaneously produce irrefutable Republican talking points asserting that the new outlaw fad proves that the Democrat in the Oval Office has performed poorly.
Objecting to too much government is one thing, but letting bath salts be sold without legal guidelines is incomprehensible. Write to your Senators and congressional representatives and demand action now! Or better yet, show up at a townhall meeting and, when you are sure the TV cameras are rolling, ask what will be done about the bath salts problem. One Congresswoman in Florida is ready to take action. Why are other states lagging behind?
Does that make it sound like the Summer of ’68 isn’t really over yet? Well put this in your Magritte style pipe and smoke it: some imaginative scoundrels have discovered that if they go through the paperwork to be accredited as a patient in pain with a legitimate need for medical marijuana, they can turn around and sell their “medicine” at a slight profit to some people who may not want pesky paperwork in existence linking them to the “devil weed.” (Would it be a “cop out” for us to fail to provide an example of people who might prefer to remain “off the books” as far as being a legitimate registered pot head is concerned?)
Older nostalgia prone assignment desks might like that flashback topic, too. Think any one of them would be too embarrassed to steal an idea from “the World’s Laziest Journalist”? Me neither too.
The concept of being a topic rustler brings us to another flashback topic: At the Berkeley 7 flashback film series, we saw for the first time last night, the classic film “Scarface” starring Al Pacino. All the gangster activities called “rub-out,” “whack,” or “hit” at various times in the annals of the gangster genre movies reminded us that the President seems to be imitating the gangster mentality with his foreign policy. Col. Qaddafi is becoming an annoyance? Bomb the snot out of his living compound. Send “the boys” over to bin Laden’s place and have them rub him out.
Will Qaddafi’s and bin Laden’s gang be able to tell the ref: “I know where I am. I know what round it is. Don’t stop the fight!” or will they get a TKO?
Can’t you just picture President Obama telling his posse: “Everything north of State Street is O’Banion’s; we got Afghanistan and now Libya.”? Were bin Laden’s last words: “Mother of God, is this the end of Ricco?” Or did he snarl: “Top of the world, ma!”? Did the Seals yell: “Osama, say hello to my little friend!”?
For over ten year, the World’s Laziest Journalist has been motivated to write political punditry for various online sites by a “Man of La Mancha” delusion that it was worth while to get up at 6 a.m. pound out some words such as a column that ridiculed the contention that some dumb aluminum tube was irrefutable evidence that the invasion of some country was imperative and then make the effort to get online and post it. There was always the hope that the next column would (somehow) hit a nerve and cause all of America to question the Bush junta’s sanity.
Now that George W. Bush’s successor from the opposition Party has endorsed the Bush war policy, writing critical political commentary is an unnecessary foolish self deception and is an example of inefficient use of time. Rather than continuing the futile railing, long neglected book length projects can be reconsidered and perhaps revived with renewed enthusiasm.
What’s not to like about sleeping in until 7:30 a.m., doing the same amount of writing, and then, instead of hustling off to get a turn on a Berkeley Public Library computer connected to the Internets, taking a long leisurely stroll (and perhaps having a serendipitous encounter with a bargain bin priced intriguing used book), and stopping off at Pepe’s Pizza to indulge in their Pizza buffet for lunch?
Obviously, a timely topic, such as the wide spread notion that the world will end on May 22, can be a compelling occasion for a column chock full of cynical skepticism. After that date has passed, perhaps the World’s Laziest Journalist can parlay the fact that he, as an ordained minister, prayed that God would stay his hand and delay Judgment Day for a good long while, into a selling point to gain some lucrative speaking engagements?
Perhaps we could get an immediate start on participating in this year’s San Francisco Litquake festival by sending a query letter to the Beat Museum? We would note that we had not only interceded and prevented the End of the World, but that as a well read Kerouac wannabe who has not yet completed his memoirs manuscript, we would not selfishly use the occasion for self promotion of a new book we had written, but would, instead, be able to speak knowledgeably (on the pseudo intellectual level) about many of the books by other writers that are for sale in the gift and bookstore section of that venue.
Would San Francisco’s literati find “An Evening with the World’s Laziest Journalist” a refreshing change of pace from the usual “I’m begging you to buy this book” type of disguised boorish sales pitch? What would be the best way to find the answer to that question?
Heck, by the time this year’s Litquake gets started, if we have interceded and convinced God to postpone the End of the World for a little while isn’t that worth something? Is a speaking engagement at the Beat Museum too much to ask?
Allen Ginsberg (at a poetry reading in San Francisco, long before the first Litquake) said: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for a fix . . . .” All they had to do was buy some bath salts. Who knew?
Now the disk jockey will fix us up with a chance to listen to “Harlem Nocturne,” the soundtrack album for “Kiss Me Deadly,” and “Night Train.” We have to go find some new tidbits of news that will make it worth while for the aforementioned assignment desk editors to “tune in again next time.” Have a “fa-a-a-r out!” type week.
May 5, 2011
Donald Trump’s Guide to Business Ethics
This was mostly finished before bin Laden was killed and wiped ‘The Donald’ off the Big Media radar. But I thought I’d post it anyway, before this pompous fraud descends to the obscurity he ‘richly’ deserves.
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May 4, 2011
Mothers Day: “Greetings from the Pinnacle Collection Agency…”
I recently got an e-mail from a friend of mine who is truly a Marine Mom — being the proud mother of four (4) Marine sons who have either served in Iraq or Afghanistan or both. “Now that Osama bin Laden is dead,” Marine Mom wrote me, “now they can finally bring our troops home.” Don’t I wish. But as long as war profiteers such as Halliburton, CACI, DynCorp, Bechtel, Chevron, Aegis, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin and General Electric think that there is even one last spare penny to be squeezed out of the blood, sweat and fears of American taxpayers by selling weapons, then America will remain in Iraq and Afghanistan forever. I’ve been to both countries. I know. There’s money to be made there. Endless war. Milk it for all that it’s worth.
And speaking of milking American taxpayers for every spare penny they can, the Pinnacle Financial Group apparently is also specializing in this line of work — enthusiastically milking any and all the poor suckers who fall behind in their T-Mobile or Verizon payments, happily milking them for all that they are worth too.
Another mother I know just e-mailed me a rather sobering story about how her adult daughter had fallen behind in her cell phone payments because she had been laid off of her clerical job, and how her daughter had then been hounded and plagued by a collection agency. Well, okay so far. After all, isn’t that a collection agency’s job — to hound deadbeats?
But this particular collection agency has apparently taken things too far.
For the past two months, my long-suffering friend’s phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from the Pinnacle Collection Group in Minneapolis, demanding money from my friend’s daughter — who doesn’t even live with her mom.
Finally, after about 20 annoying calls from Pinnacle, my friend demanded that the agency take her phone number off their list. “My daughter doesn’t live here, you have the wrong number, please don’t call me again,” she told them over the phone.
And the rep from Pinnacle then SCREAMED at her. “We can’t do that! Your daughter gave your number as her contact number. We have the RIGHT to keep calling!” And then the rep hung up on my friend. Hung up on her! Like she was some sort of criminal. Then my friend had a heart-to-heart talk with her daughter. “Can’t you just pay them off?” And her daughter replied that she had already fully paid back T-Mobile after she had finally managed to find a new job. And yet Pinnacle keeps calling and calling my friend’s house? Huh?
So my friend called the police and the police said to write to Pinnacle a letter to tell them to Cease and Desist — which she did.
And I also rose to the occasion and did some research about debt-collection agencies in general and Pinnacle Collection Group in particular — and it turns out that debt collection, like the endless “war” in Iraq and Afghanistan, is just another racket, another sleazy money-making scam.
And according to Google, my friend is not the only one who is being harassed by Pinnacle. Got a few minutes? Want to get entertained? Here’s a whole bunch of statements from truly angry people regarding their experiences with this nasty agency: http://www.callferret.com/pinnacle-financial-group.html
But wait. It doesn’t stop there. Apparently, even if you have already paid off your debt and provided airtight proof to Pinnacle, they will still hound you — or your mother. And apparently they will still keep taking money out of your account even after you have paid them off completely — or out of your mother’s account. Happy Mother’s Day!
And if Pinnacle can run this scam on my friend’s daughter and get away with it, and is also running this scam on thousands of other Americans, let’s do the math. If each unwitting victim ponys up, say, one thousand dollars each and Pinnacle is doing this thousands of times a day, that’s a whole bunch of money to be made. That’s debt profiteering!
But there are things that you and I can do to protect ourselves from collection agency scams. We can talk to the Better Business Bureau, hire an attorney to sue the agencies or complain to the FCC. But what can we do to protect ourselves from war-profiteering scams? Apparently nothing. And our multi-trillion-dollar national debt attests to that fact.
Can we vote war-mongers out of office? Not unless we have expensive lobbyists and campaign managers working night and day on our behalf. Can we just phone up the Pentagon and tell them to back off? Yeah right. Can we gather millions of angry Americans in Washington to protest needless war? Been there, done that. No results. Can we just stop paying that hefty 54% of our taxes that goes to “defense” spending? And end up in jail? No thank you to that one either.
Or can we do what Julia Ward Howe recommended in her Mother’s Day anti-war proclamation of 1870, written after she had seen the terrible after-effects of America’s brutal Civil War — the suffering endured by returning soldiers and their families. She called these effects “Soldiers Hearts”. We now call them PTSD.
According to Gary Kohls, M.D., “What was an unexpected development for many of the families of the returning soldiers — both North and South — was the fact that many of the veterans who had no visible scars were still disabled mentally, many of them getting worse after they came home. The healing effect of time didn’t work like it was supposed to in the combat-traumatized victim of war. These ones commonly became melancholy, suffered horrendous nightmares, couldn’t function in society and were frequently suicidal, homicidal and/or turned to a life of crime.”
Here’s what Julia Ward Howe suggests that we do (Ah, if only we had listened to Howe back in 1870, then America would not be so economically and morally bankrupt in 2011):
Arise then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!
Say firmly: ‘We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
‘Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.’
From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm, disarm!” The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor does violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions and the great and general interests of peace.
PS: So instead of going off to Sizzler or the Olive Garden or the Red Onion to celebrate Mother’s Day, let’s all demand an end to war.
PPS: Speaking of Osama bin Laden, will somebody please explain to me exactly what happened over there in Abbottabad the other day? Apparently OBL was cornered and weaponless and defenseless, standing unarmed in his jammies and bunny slippers, but the SEALS shot him anyway. Was that a mercy killing to keep him from having to get water-boarded at Guantanamo? Or was it just to keep him from spilling the beans about all his connections to the CIA? We may never know.
And why would having OBL buried at sea keep his followers from erecting a shrine to him? They could still erect one at the compound — although if it takes bin Laden’s fan club as long to build a shrine in Abbottabad as it is taking Americans to build a shrine at the site of the WTC, then we obviously have nothing to worry about for at least the next ten years! http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2011/04/mayor-bloomberg-says-shrine-to-911-victims-at-memorial-beautiful-respectful-de
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May 3, 2011
We’re All “Good Bushies” now! ? ! ?
President Obama has just given America’s complete and unconditional endorsement to the Middle East tradition of using a perpetual cycle of violence to conduct a philosophical debate. Thomas E. (AKA T. E.) Lawrence, in his book “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” informed readers that revenge is an integral part of the Muslim culture. When American political pundits say that the death of Osama bin Laden gives closure to the attack on the World Trade Center, that is about as astute as hearing a rookie sportscaster saying that a three run rally in the top of the first inning erases the necessity for playing the next eight and a half innings.
When the images of the attack on the World Trade Center were shown, crowds in the Middle East were reported to be holding spontaneous joyous celebrations in the streets of various cities in their countries. Americans were outraged and considered such a reaction inappropriate.
Sunday, after Americans were told that Osama bin Laden had been killed by Navy Seals, Americans responded with jubilant crowds expressing approval at various diverse locations mostly the sites of sporting events.
Presidential candidate Obama promised that he would deliver change. Apparently he has delivered on that promise. America has embraced the methods and conduct they once considered barbaric and unacceptable.
The fact that Americans at sporting events participated in spontaneous displays of euphoria when they received the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed, will only goad Al Qaeda into a much firmer resolve to deal out a brutal payback attack. Does a bull attack the matador’s cape? The lower echelon of al Qaeda’s cadre has just been dealt an insulting challenge which they won’t ignore.
T. E. Lawrence informed his readers that the Muslim culture is also noted for its patience regarding a response so that if they don’t send a suicide bomber into action on Wednesday, that doesn’t mean that they won’t ever strike back; it just means they will pick the time and place and proceed at their leisure.
The irony for Democrats is that by fully and unreservedly endorsing the violent assassination of Osama bin Laden, President Obama has committed members of his political party to Bush’s Eternal War on Terrorism.
Initially some Democrats (and a few rogue online columnists) objected to Bush’s use of invasion, torture, and excessive collateral civilian damage but now with the Obama move to commit his Party to the Bush agenda, he has made any efforts to promote antiwar sentiment become a despicable example of disloyal cowardice.
Shifting the Democrats into the cycle of perpetual retaliatory events is an irreversible move of the “you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube” type. The Peacenik point of view will become as relevant to the contemporary political arena as are the beliefs of the flat earth society.
Al Qaeda is now compelled to retaliate and when they do, the average American (who was seen rejoicing in the news at Sunday night sporting events) will demand a bigger and more horrific response to the al Qaeda answer to Osama’s assassination. At that point history will take on the hall of mirrors look and there won’t be any turning back.
The fact that one of Col. Qaddafi’s sons was killed in a recent NATO airstrike will mean that as he has previously (when his step daughter was killed) the Libyan leader will unleash his own subsidized violent retaliation.
Any new terrorism activity that is unleashed inside the United States will have at least two potential sources in the Muslim world. If something happens, bloodthirsty Americans will demand a quick act of generic revenge and not a comprehensive investigation to determine the specific group that did the deed.
America’s security forces have been rather successful using entrapment gambits for ensnaring young gullible guys, but from here on, things are going to get progressively rougher and meaner.
Was the old movie comedy routine about two guys engaging in a slapping contest based on a real life macho contest? If so, that example of slowly increasing hostility could become a valid metaphor for a series of increasingly violent retaliation moves.
Any speculation about what could possibly have been done to avoid the now inevitable eternal cycle of increasingly bloody retaliator moves is totally irrelevant.
Alternate fiction history can be interesting and entertaining but it is an exorcise in futility. What would have happened if the Seal team had shot Osama with a paintball gun and then said: “We could have killed you just now, but we want to break the pattern of the eternal cycle of violent retribution killing.” But they didn’t. They shot him dead.
Whatever infinitesimally small chance that might have had to work is irrelevant. Osama was assassinated and the United States will be seen as accepting the ground rules for a never ending series of alternating retaliations.
Punditry about “closure” will only serve to increase the level righteous indignation in America when (not “if”) al Qaeda retaliates for the assassination of Osama or Col. Qaddafi seeks revenge for the killing of his son. That, in turn, will only compel America’s subsequent answer to be an absolute requirement for any President of either party.
At that point George W. Bush’s assertion that he had started an “Eternal” war and that it has been fully endorsed by the Democrats courtesy of President Obama will be irrefutable. Attempting political commentary that runs counter to both the Republican and Democratic Presidents’ agendas would be completely idiotic and an example of wasted effort. Consequently subsequent columns written by the World’s Laziest Journalist may be about irrelevant, inconsequential, and perhaps even innocuous topics.
A segment of the lyrics to one of Waylon Jennings’ songs seems to be appropriate for the closing quote: “ . . . waiting for something to happen – hope it doesn’t happen to me . . .”
Now the disk jockey will play the Zombies song “How We Were Before,” CCR’s “Bad Moon Rising,” and Dick Dale and the Deltones 1963 release “We’ll Never Hear the End of It.”
We have to go attend a “More war; Less social services” rally. Have a “Revenge is sweet” type week.
Ye Olde Scribe Presents: More Birther Questions
“Cause nothing says racism like some Birthers when they cook up controversy. Scribe imagines a Birther cookbook. And, yes, ‘It’s a COOKBOOK! It’s a COOKBOOK!’ Because follow Birther’s instructions and the nation’s goose IS cooked.”
(Donald Trump picture courtesy gawker.com)
Ah, nothing is more satisfying than…
ROAST RUMP OF TRUMP
1 placenta from Obama’s birth
Any blood spilled
DNA from all involved
Gitmo-ized Hawaii officials, medium well tormented until they’ll admit to anything
Obama under the same conditions
A gun to the head of his mother
Dug up corpse of father
And you STILL wouldn’t convince some Birthers, and Donald Rump O’Trump would just find some other way to harass that “n****r” president.
Oh, and by the way, where is the report on all that “amazing” stuff your invisible investigators never found in Hawaii, Mr. Rump O’Trump?
Now, on to the main presentation….
More Birther Questions
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Bin Laden Killing Assures Obama’s Reelection in 2012
It’s a sad fact that a sizable section of the voting public, colloquially known as Low-Information Voters (LIV), doesn’t pay close attention to politics, history or much else of serious importance to their futures. If they happen to be women, they can be found glued to shopping channels, ‘reality’ TV shows or Oprah; if men, they are usually focused on sports, video games or action films.
While we progressives can endlessly debate the nuances of Obama ordering the killing of Osama bin Laden, the LIV have already made up their minds: Obama is now the ‘kick ass’ president who brought down bin Laden, outdoing even Junior Bush, a previous favorite of this crowd because he invaded Iraq and kicked Saddam Hussein’s ass, even if Iraq and Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. (Some of them still think he did.)
Most of us know or are related to members of the LIV contingent; these are the celebrators who were deliriously waving the flag, pumping their fists in the air and chanting ‘USA, USA’ in venues around the country after the news of bin Laden’s death was reported last Sunday. I have been drinking in neighborhood bars with the LIV for decades, and know how they think. They love Dirty Harry/Rambo kick ass commanders-in-chief and Obama just joined that group. No ambiguity here: bin Laden deserved to die and Obama killed him, despite the fact that al-Qaeda will not be put out of business, any more than the Gambino crime family ceased to exist when Carlo Gambino died.
Hilariously and pathetically, some Republicans are trying to give Little Bush credit for bin Laden’s demise, refusing to mention Obama, but even the demented bloviator Rush Limbaugh, Reagan’s parsimonious mouthpiece Peggy Noonan and that troglodyte Rep. Peter King are complimenting Obama for killing Osama. And what does the GOP have in the presidential bullpen to respond — Trump’s wild hair, Romney’s scintillating personality, Huckabee’s huckster Christianity, Pawlenty’s passive-aggressive puling, Bachmann’s Tea Party overdrive?
Also worth noting is that by this action Obama gained support from many in the military, proving to them he is no academic liberal wimp unwilling to ‘pull the trigger’ on the terrorists.
Obama is now the kick ass commander-in-chief and, in America, kick ass commanders-in-chief always win reelection, except for Poppy Bush. (Even his own party hated him for not going into Baghdad and taking out Saddam Hussein during the First Gulf War — and the LIV loathed him.)
Short of a full-blown Great Depression-style economic collapse, Obama just sealed his 2012 win and the LIV and military will be his margin of victory.
Copyright 2011 RS Janes.
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Is “Peace” obsolete?
The nostalgia laden icon, known as “the Peace symbol” is ubiquitous in Berkeley CA. The prolific bit of graphics could provide an industrious photo student with a potential theme for a project which could furnish enough raw material for a photo book.
The idea that the commercial exploitation of the Northern California city’s altruistic sentiment would be an ironic example of the crass basis for all capitalistic endeavor might be perceived by cynical columnists as an example of oxymoron thinking, but the unfortunate truth is that making a profit on idealism is a more realistic effort than is the lofty goal of the people who display the graphics which may or may not express the political move for nuclear disarmament by presenting the letters “N” and “D” in semaphore signals style. Apparently they think that nuclear disarmament is the first necessary step towards achieving a perpetual world-wide Peace.
Did the hippie trend of using the two finger “V” hand signal (popularized by Winston Churchill in WWII) to express the “Peace” sentiment originate in Berkeley during the Sixties? Dunno.
Ironically, the city that is almost a synonym for anti-war sentiment is also the location for a weapons laboratory think tank.
Sadly, the events of the first half of this year may put the altruistic goal of “Peace” so far out of reach that it can realistically be considered “Mission Impossible.”
The industrious family men who provide mainstream media with commentary would loose their precious paychecks for pointing this out, but a rogue (gonzo?) blogger can churn out such a column knowing that, in a culture dominated by clever conservative propaganda, his effort, even if it is a “spot-on” evaluation of a bleak truth, at best it will just provide a curious footnote for future historians scrutinizing the detritus from that year’s pop culture.
What evidence is there to back the deduction that Peace is now an unattainable goal?
For one example, examine the quagmire in Afghanistan. Now that Osama bin Laden has been sent to his eternal reward (which may be an inappropriate cliché phrase) the American military operation in Afghanistan may seem to be unnecessary. The fact that there will be no withdrawal of troops and no rational explanation for the American military’s continued presence in that country will be a subtle preview of the “perpetual war” reality that American voters will slowly comprehend.
Greater analytical minds than the one that this columnist possesses will have to make an evaluation for this possibility: “Could it be that President Obama was “played” into making a rash move when he ordered the assassination of Osama bin Laden because the short term surge in his popularity ratings will later be eclipsed when the military industrial complex forbids Obama from adding to his reelection potential by evacuating the American military presence from Afghanistan?”
Obviously the gangland style treatment of Obama was a crowd pleaser, but if (for whatever reasons) the American President fails to remove troops from that theater of operations and concurrently fails to provide the voters with a rational explanation for that failure to make the logical move, then his popularity rating will suffer.
Here’s a doggy treat for the conspiracy-theory-lunatic crowd: Suppose that some dastardly advisors, who are secretly committed to Ayn S. Rand style conservative goals of perpetual profits for privatized military support firms, lured President Obama into ordering the rub-out of Osama, knowing that the long-term payoff would not be beneficial to a Democratic party incumbent candidate in the 2012 Presidential Election. Could it be that Obama is getting tainted advice from moles committed to the Republican agenda?
If al Qaeda responds to Osama’s death, as they have promised, with a devastating example of terrorism in the form of a nuclear explosion and if that happens before the next Presidential election is held, that might have a negative effect on Obama’s popularity ratings and vote totals. If they hold off until after the 2012 elections, then it will be a matter of either: Obama won’t care because he can’t have a third term, or a Republican winner would easily blame such a retaliation on the fact that it was Obama who ordered the hit on Osama. Either way they will have to respond in kind.
The US has participated in the NATO air strikes in support of the Libyan rebels. Col. Qaddafi has shown patience and perseverance in the past when he chose to send terrorists to deliver his retaliation answer to the USA. Qaddafi shows little potential for a St. Paul moment decision to adopt the “turn the other cheek” religious philosophy. Hence, it can be assumed that Qaddafi will veto any “Peace” sentiments.
What about Iraq? Since revenge is an integral part of Muslim culture, it seems that for a generation or two there will be a large contingent of Iraqi citizens who are relatives of people declared “unintended collateral damage” fatal casualties, and who will consider it their duty to remind Americans of the Biblical axiom about justice demanding “an eye for an eye.” They would not feel obligated to be bound by any peace deal with America by (to use a George W. Bush phrase) a “scrap of paper.”
Recent events in Egypt may remind foreign policy wonks of the old FDR assessment of a dictator. His succinct assessment could well apply to recently deposed Hasni Mubarak: “He may be an S.O.B., but he is our S.O.B.”
A zoo in the New York City region recently had to contend with a cobra snake who got out of her cage. Well, the American Mid East policy wonks may have an analogous problem developing in Egypt.
Do you think that North Korea’s leadership enthusiastically hold an annual celebration for the birth of “the Prince of Peace”? Me neither too.
What about Iran? If the 2012 election delivers Republican majorities back to the House and Senate, will a President from either major American political party be prone to ignore dire assessments from the CIA?
The new CIA director will be a fellow with the “Green Machine” mentality. Would he be tempted to tailor make intelligence about Iran’s nuclear development program for the fellow sitting in the Oval Office after the January 2013 Inauguration ceremony?
If the Expanded War Authority Act, which is now being voted on by the Congress and Senate, passes, the next President would be empowered to order a bombing strike on the Iranian nuclear development facility without the seeking prior permission from Congress. Anyone who has noted the long stream of news items about Republicans urging such a preemptive strike wouldn’t need to consult a fortune teller to predict what will eventually happen if the Expanded War Authority Act passes and is signed into law. (Hat tip to the Mike Malloy radio program for directing our attention to that obscure bit of legislative news just as this column was being written.)
There are other pockets of animosity that portend of additional troubles for America. Such as? Somalia, Yemen, the India – Pakistan border disputes, and America’s porous borders to name some.
Some immature Americans reacted to the news of Osama’s death as if they had just witnessed a walk-off grand slam in the ninth inning of the seventh game of a World Series. Guess again. Folks in Berkeley who reacted by dusting off various examples of their Peace symbols might be more realistic if they made plans to revive efforts to provide draft counseling advice for students.
Omar Bradley is quoted in Barlett’s for saying: “In war there is no second price for the runner-up.”
Now the disk jockey will play John and Yoko’s “Give Peace a chance,” the Doors’ “War is Over,” and Berkeley’s own Fogerty Brothers (their band is called CCR) playing “Who will stop the rain?” Now we have to go see how the latest hunger strike on campus is going. Have a “it ain’t over ‘til its over” type week.