Let me get this straight, drilling for oil in the Gulf only produces 8% of US fuels used but it has to go on to keep people employed even though drilling killing fishing careers for generations in perhaps the whole Gulf of Mexico.
Hypocrisy, thy name be Bobby Jindal.
[NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Scientists are reporting early signs that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is altering the marine food web by killing or tainting some creatures and spurring the growth of others more suited to a fouled environment.
Near the spill site, researchers have documented a massive die-off of pyrosomes - cucumber-shaped, gelatinous organisms fed on by endangered sea turtles.
Along the coast, droplets of oil are being found inside the shells of young crabs that are a mainstay in the diet of fish, turtles and shorebirds.
And at the base of the food web, tiny organisms that consume oil and gas are proliferating.
If such impacts continue, the scientists warn of a grim reshuffling of sealife that could over time cascade through the ecosystem and imperil the region's multibillion-dollar fishing industry.
Federal wildlife officials say the impacts are not irreversible, and no tainted seafood has yet been found. But Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who chairs a House committee investigating the spill, warned Tuesday that the problem is just unfolding and toxic oil could be entering seafood stocks as predators eat contaminated marine life.
"You change the base of the food web, it's going to ripple through the entire food web," said marine scientist Rob Condon, who found oil-loving bacteria off the Alabama coastline, more than 90 miles from BP's collapsed Deepwater Horizon drill rig. "Ultimately it's going to impact fishing and introduce a lot of contaminants into the food web."
The food web is the fundamental fabric of life in the Gulf.] emphasis added
[Toby Dalton takes on another kind of work. He's been out checking boom, suggesting spots for extra protection against the impending oil slick.
The third-generation oysterman is on the front lines in the fight for the sensitive estuaries that spawn oysters in a Gulf community where water is the region's lifeblood.
``We're the first responders,'' said Dalton, 28, standing on the edge of his small wooden skiff, a pile of oysters at his back. ``We know the sensitive areas that need tending to.''
In a county of 12,000 people, where the economic engines of fishing and tourism are intertwined, the steps to guard against the oil have meant a fight for not only livelihood, but identity....
``My granddaddy done with push pole, back before they even had motors, he push poled out,'' he said, talking about his time as an oysterman. ``If I can't work on this bay, I don't know what else to do. It's all I know. I lose this bay, I lose 90 percent of my life. Ninety percent of my memories are on this bay. If we lose this bay, this town will lose a heritage.''] emphasis added
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/14/1729203/apalachicola-bay-oystermen-fight.html
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
"We all lost, because a voice that spoke the truth was silenced by mean and little men."
Decades ago chanced to meet a gentleman at the Melbourne Times weekly paper who treated me with kindness. Only years later did I learn he should have received a Pulitzer rather than disgrace in a criminal case.
The homophophobic Johns Committee, formally known as The Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, sought to investigate the usual subjects in the early 60's: communists, homosexuals, and nigra agitators.
An Orlando Sentinel reporter, Robert M Delaney--Tallahassee correspondent and criticc of the committee- suffered arrest, lost his job, and his marriage after a criminal conviction yet remained, to my knowledge, a kind gentleman.
Echoes of this time still ring in misguided FL ban on adoption by homosexuals: "Similar claims that unrestrained homosexuals would prey on children were later repeated and widely publicized by Anita Bryant in her successful Save Our Children campaign to repeal Dade County's gay rights ordinance in 1977. Partly due to her victory there, in 1978 the Florida Legislature, still dominated by a small group of North Florida senators, passed a bill prohibiting homosexuals from adopting children; the statute has survived several court challenges, and was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 2004.[10]"
Ironically or perhaps suitably, the committee only disbanded after publishing the Purple Pamphlet detailing homosexual activity with pictures later deemed pornograhic and sold in NY City.
NEW YORK CITY!!!
Can't you just imagine those FL senators of yore poring over pictures with hands firmly on their crotches, harumphing at the depravity pictured, "Can you pass me that last one again, the one with the "young man" bound in ropes," says a sweaty Senator, feeling a tingle in his groin yet unknowing where the urge comes from, denying their latent homosexuality, and projecting their libido onto hapless homosexuals.
Sure. I knew you could.
"{9} ...[T]here is nothing new under the sun... {11} There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow."
Jury Finds Reporter Guilty in Morals Case:
A newspaper reporter who says he is being persecuted for his opposition to the so-called Johns Committee was convicted yesterday of "attempting" to commit an unnatural act with an e-convict female informer.
A six-man jury convicted Robert Delaney, Orlando Sentinel capital correspondent, after deliberating one hour and 10 minutes. Conviction carries a possible 10 year sentence. Delaney indicated there would be an appeal.
A previous trial ended in a hung jury.
Delaney was convicted mainly on the testimony of a woman who admitted she was "borrowed" by the Tallahassee Police Department from the controversial Legislative Investigations Committee, commonly known as the Johns Committee, for this one outing.
She is Mrs. Janice Chambers Sheffield Godwin Wilkes, alias Jann Lee or Jan Lea, a black-haired bartender from Pensacola with a felony conviction for writing bad checks.
She says she is, or has been, "a professional entertainer."
It was on her word that state attorney Williams Hopkins built his case against Delaney, who was one of the most outspoken critics of the John's Ccommittee--a state investigating committee that gained notoriety for hunting Comminusts and homosexuals on FL college campuses.
Delaney's defense, handled by Julius Parker Sr. and Julius Jarker Jr., was aimed at showing that R. J. Strickland, then chief investigator for the Johns Committee and an enemy of Delaney, teamed up with the Tallahassee Police Department to entice Delaney into a motel room with Jan Lee ande take a picture off him with her in a compromising position.]
Link to abstract of story, full story below
[Reporter a victim of Johns panel
St. Petersburg Times - St. Petersburg, Fla.
Date: Jul 12, 1993
Start Page: 4.B
Section: TAMPA BAY AND STATE
A highly regarded capital reporter for the Orlando Sentinel became one victim of the Legislature's investigative Johns Committee in the early 1960s, his marriage shattered, his job gone and his name smeared.
Robert Delaney's trouble started when he began writing columns attacking the panel directed by Sen. Charlie Johns and its witch hunt against homosexuals.
"My father was never the same after that," Kay Sloan, his daughter, told the Times Union & Journal in Jacksonville.
Julius Parker, the Tallahassee lawyer who represented Delaney, said Delaney, who died three years ago, was a recovering alcoholic. He was approached by a woman who told him she was fighting an alcohol problem and needed help.
She called him at 1 a.m. to say she had a bottle of vodka in her motel room and was desperate.
When he arrived, Parker said, the woman was wearing only a bathrobe, which fell open.
Police rushed in and charged Delaney with a felony sex crime. The law later was declared unconstitutional.
After refusing to plead guilty to a lesser charge and after one hung jury, the 45-year-old Delaney was convicted of attempting to commit the crime and placed on five years' probation.
He immediately was fired by his newspaper, which had kept him on pending the verdict.
Delaney moved his family to Miami and tried to put his life back together, but his career was essentially over.
Ms. Sloan, now a Clearwater lawyer, said her mother stuck by her father, but the marriage was never the same. They were divorced five years later.
"My father went on to do wonderful things," Ms. Sloan said. "He was a consultant for alcoholism rehabilitation for the state of Florida. He became a columnist in his later years for the Florida Today newspaper. But there was a long hiatus in his career.
"We all lost, because a voice that spoke the truth was silenced by mean and little men." (emphasis added)
Credit: Associated Press]
Reproduced without permission of the copyright owner under the Fair Use Doctrine as some FL politicians have learned nothing in 37 years. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
The homophophobic Johns Committee, formally known as The Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, sought to investigate the usual subjects in the early 60's: communists, homosexuals, and nigra agitators.
An Orlando Sentinel reporter, Robert M Delaney--Tallahassee correspondent and criticc of the committee- suffered arrest, lost his job, and his marriage after a criminal conviction yet remained, to my knowledge, a kind gentleman.
Echoes of this time still ring in misguided FL ban on adoption by homosexuals: "Similar claims that unrestrained homosexuals would prey on children were later repeated and widely publicized by Anita Bryant in her successful Save Our Children campaign to repeal Dade County's gay rights ordinance in 1977. Partly due to her victory there, in 1978 the Florida Legislature, still dominated by a small group of North Florida senators, passed a bill prohibiting homosexuals from adopting children; the statute has survived several court challenges, and was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 2004.[10]"
Ironically or perhaps suitably, the committee only disbanded after publishing the Purple Pamphlet detailing homosexual activity with pictures later deemed pornograhic and sold in NY City.
NEW YORK CITY!!!
Can't you just imagine those FL senators of yore poring over pictures with hands firmly on their crotches, harumphing at the depravity pictured, "Can you pass me that last one again, the one with the "young man" bound in ropes," says a sweaty Senator, feeling a tingle in his groin yet unknowing where the urge comes from, denying their latent homosexuality, and projecting their libido onto hapless homosexuals.
Sure. I knew you could.
"{9} ...[T]here is nothing new under the sun... {11} There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow."
A newspaper reporter who says he is being persecuted for his opposition to the so-called Johns Committee was convicted yesterday of "attempting" to commit an unnatural act with an e-convict female informer.
A six-man jury convicted Robert Delaney, Orlando Sentinel capital correspondent, after deliberating one hour and 10 minutes. Conviction carries a possible 10 year sentence. Delaney indicated there would be an appeal.
A previous trial ended in a hung jury.
Delaney was convicted mainly on the testimony of a woman who admitted she was "borrowed" by the Tallahassee Police Department from the controversial Legislative Investigations Committee, commonly known as the Johns Committee, for this one outing.
She is Mrs. Janice Chambers Sheffield Godwin Wilkes, alias Jann Lee or Jan Lea, a black-haired bartender from Pensacola with a felony conviction for writing bad checks.
She says she is, or has been, "a professional entertainer."
It was on her word that state attorney Williams Hopkins built his case against Delaney, who was one of the most outspoken critics of the John's Ccommittee--a state investigating committee that gained notoriety for hunting Comminusts and homosexuals on FL college campuses.
Delaney's defense, handled by Julius Parker Sr. and Julius Jarker Jr., was aimed at showing that R. J. Strickland, then chief investigator for the Johns Committee and an enemy of Delaney, teamed up with the Tallahassee Police Department to entice Delaney into a motel room with Jan Lee ande take a picture off him with her in a compromising position.]
Link to abstract of story, full story below
[Reporter a victim of Johns panel
St. Petersburg Times - St. Petersburg, Fla.
Date: Jul 12, 1993
Start Page: 4.B
Section: TAMPA BAY AND STATE
A highly regarded capital reporter for the Orlando Sentinel became one victim of the Legislature's investigative Johns Committee in the early 1960s, his marriage shattered, his job gone and his name smeared.
Robert Delaney's trouble started when he began writing columns attacking the panel directed by Sen. Charlie Johns and its witch hunt against homosexuals.
"My father was never the same after that," Kay Sloan, his daughter, told the Times Union & Journal in Jacksonville.
Julius Parker, the Tallahassee lawyer who represented Delaney, said Delaney, who died three years ago, was a recovering alcoholic. He was approached by a woman who told him she was fighting an alcohol problem and needed help.
She called him at 1 a.m. to say she had a bottle of vodka in her motel room and was desperate.
When he arrived, Parker said, the woman was wearing only a bathrobe, which fell open.
Police rushed in and charged Delaney with a felony sex crime. The law later was declared unconstitutional.
After refusing to plead guilty to a lesser charge and after one hung jury, the 45-year-old Delaney was convicted of attempting to commit the crime and placed on five years' probation.
He immediately was fired by his newspaper, which had kept him on pending the verdict.
Delaney moved his family to Miami and tried to put his life back together, but his career was essentially over.
Ms. Sloan, now a Clearwater lawyer, said her mother stuck by her father, but the marriage was never the same. They were divorced five years later.
"My father went on to do wonderful things," Ms. Sloan said. "He was a consultant for alcoholism rehabilitation for the state of Florida. He became a columnist in his later years for the Florida Today newspaper. But there was a long hiatus in his career.
"We all lost, because a voice that spoke the truth was silenced by mean and little men." (emphasis added)
Credit: Associated Press]
Reproduced without permission of the copyright owner under the Fair Use Doctrine as some FL politicians have learned nothing in 37 years. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Violent Wingnuts from '03 Haven't Gone Away, Just Joined the Tea Party
Michael Moore interviewed at Alternet:
[{I}t got up to nine bodyguards on me, three per shift, twenty-four hours a day, living with us.
You know, I mean, there was the guy in Nashville that came, jumped up on the stage with a knife. There was a guy in Portland that had a metal pipe coming at me. There was the guy in Fort Lauderdale who was just walking out of Starbucks and saw me on the sidewalk and became livid and took the lid off his hot, scalding coffee and threw it in my face. The bodyguard was so fast, he put his face in front of mine to catch it and got second-degree, we had to take him to the hospital, but not before he took the guy down on the sidewalk and handcuffed him. And then, there was the guy who was going to blow up our house. And he was making his practice bombs in Illinois, and one night one went off accidentally. He wasn’t hurt. The neighbors heard it. They called the cops, and they came there, and they saw all the materials and the list of people whose homes he was going to blow up. And it was Janet Reno, Rosie O’Donnell, Hillary and me.] emphasis added
For 5 modern examples of Patriot Mouthpieces:
[In the last year and a half, militias and the larger antigovernment "Patriot" movement have exploded, accompanied by the rapid expansion of other sectors of the radical right. This spectacular growth (see timeline) is the result of several factors, including anger over major political, demographic and economic changes in America, along with the popularization of radical ideas and conspiracy theories by ostensibly mainstream politicians and media commentators.]
[{I}t got up to nine bodyguards on me, three per shift, twenty-four hours a day, living with us.
You know, I mean, there was the guy in Nashville that came, jumped up on the stage with a knife. There was a guy in Portland that had a metal pipe coming at me. There was the guy in Fort Lauderdale who was just walking out of Starbucks and saw me on the sidewalk and became livid and took the lid off his hot, scalding coffee and threw it in my face. The bodyguard was so fast, he put his face in front of mine to catch it and got second-degree, we had to take him to the hospital, but not before he took the guy down on the sidewalk and handcuffed him. And then, there was the guy who was going to blow up our house. And he was making his practice bombs in Illinois, and one night one went off accidentally. He wasn’t hurt. The neighbors heard it. They called the cops, and they came there, and they saw all the materials and the list of people whose homes he was going to blow up. And it was Janet Reno, Rosie O’Donnell, Hillary and me.] emphasis added
For 5 modern examples of Patriot Mouthpieces:
[In the last year and a half, militias and the larger antigovernment "Patriot" movement have exploded, accompanied by the rapid expansion of other sectors of the radical right. This spectacular growth (see timeline) is the result of several factors, including anger over major political, demographic and economic changes in America, along with the popularization of radical ideas and conspiracy theories by ostensibly mainstream politicians and media commentators.]
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Republlicans, the unemployment party
Reason 1 billion and 12 why Republicans suck:
[While it may be bad taste to accuse a major national political party of deliberately wanting to throw people out of jobs, there is no other plausible explanation for the Republicans' behaviour. They have balked at supporting nearly every bill that had any serious hope of creating or keeping jobs, most recently filibustering on bills that provided aid to state and local governments and extending unemployment benefits. The result of the Republicans' actions, unless they are reversed quickly, is that hundreds of thousands more workers will be thrown out of work by the mid-terms.
The story is straightforward. Nearly every state and local government across the country is looking at large budget shortfalls for their 2011 fiscal years, most of which begin on 1 July 2010. Since they are generally required by state constitutions or local charters to balance their budgets, they will have no choice except to raise taxes and/or make large cutbacks and lay off workers to bring spending and revenue into line.
State and local governments have cut their workforce by an average of 65,000 a month over the last three months. Without substantial aid from the federal government, this pace is likely to accelerate. The Republican agenda in blocking aid to the states may add another 300,000 people to the unemployment rolls by early November.]
[While it may be bad taste to accuse a major national political party of deliberately wanting to throw people out of jobs, there is no other plausible explanation for the Republicans' behaviour. They have balked at supporting nearly every bill that had any serious hope of creating or keeping jobs, most recently filibustering on bills that provided aid to state and local governments and extending unemployment benefits. The result of the Republicans' actions, unless they are reversed quickly, is that hundreds of thousands more workers will be thrown out of work by the mid-terms.
The story is straightforward. Nearly every state and local government across the country is looking at large budget shortfalls for their 2011 fiscal years, most of which begin on 1 July 2010. Since they are generally required by state constitutions or local charters to balance their budgets, they will have no choice except to raise taxes and/or make large cutbacks and lay off workers to bring spending and revenue into line.
State and local governments have cut their workforce by an average of 65,000 a month over the last three months. Without substantial aid from the federal government, this pace is likely to accelerate. The Republican agenda in blocking aid to the states may add another 300,000 people to the unemployment rolls by early November.]
Wrigley Field, Graveyard of Hope
With all due respect to people of all religions and faiths, Cubs fans have become the Jews of the sporting world: always waiting for the Messiah to take us to the promised land but knowing the savior will not come in our lifetime.
So does remaining a Cubs fan come from masochism, insanity, or delusional dreams?
Maybe becoming a Cubs fan comes from my genes as my pops grew up in LA and became a fan because Cubs had a minor league team there back in his day.
Whatever, if I wanted to root for a winner, I'd become a Yankees fan. Nevetheless, I could no more do so than command the sun to rise in the West.
"I Yam what I yam," as the immortal philosopher Popeye says.
Yet hope springs eternal as faith lies "in believing in things yet unseen."
Ah, spring when even the Cubs have a chance at a title. But then summer comes and dreams die in dog days of summer.
Nevertheless, human beings have bought the team rather the old corporate and essentially faceless Tribune Company. Any human Cubs fan has got to feel embarassment--nay rage, disbelief, desire to find torches And pitch forks and march on Wrigley--after a loss like on 3 July when the Cubs lost after giving up nine runs on 3 hits in the seventh inning.
Nine runs on 3 hits in the seventh inning.
Oh please God, make the pain stop
But "There ain't no rest for the wicked until we close our eyes for good."
So does remaining a Cubs fan come from masochism, insanity, or delusional dreams?
Maybe becoming a Cubs fan comes from my genes as my pops grew up in LA and became a fan because Cubs had a minor league team there back in his day.
Whatever, if I wanted to root for a winner, I'd become a Yankees fan. Nevetheless, I could no more do so than command the sun to rise in the West.
"I Yam what I yam," as the immortal philosopher Popeye says.
Yet hope springs eternal as faith lies "in believing in things yet unseen."
Ah, spring when even the Cubs have a chance at a title. But then summer comes and dreams die in dog days of summer.
Nevertheless, human beings have bought the team rather the old corporate and essentially faceless Tribune Company. Any human Cubs fan has got to feel embarassment--nay rage, disbelief, desire to find torches And pitch forks and march on Wrigley--after a loss like on 3 July when the Cubs lost after giving up nine runs on 3 hits in the seventh inning.
Nine runs on 3 hits in the seventh inning.
Oh please God, make the pain stop
But "There ain't no rest for the wicked until we close our eyes for good."
Sunday, July 4, 2010
"Journalism has Become a Linguistic Battleground," and My Crusade Against Apostrophe Abuse and Metaphors in General
Robert Fisk
writing in the 21 June edition of the London Independent:
[Following the latest in semantics on the news? Journalism and the Israeli government are in love again. It's Islamic terror, Turkish terror, Hamas terror, Islamic Jihad terror, Hezbollah terror, activist terror, war on terror, Palestinian terror, Muslim terror, Iranian terror, Syrian terror, anti-Semitic terror...
But I am doing the Israelis an injustice. Their lexicon, and that of the White House – most of the time – and our reporters' lexicon, is the same. Yes, let's be fair to the Israelis. Their lexicon goes like this: Terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror.
How many times did I just use the word "terror"? Twenty. But it might as well be 60, or 100, or 1,000, or a million. We are in love with the word, seduced by it, fixated by it, attacked by it, assaulted by it, raped by it, committed to it. It is love and sadism and death in one double syllable, the prime time-theme song, the opening of every television symphony, the headline of every page, a punctuation mark in our journalism, a semicolon, a comma, our most powerful full stop: (emphasis added)
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/fighting-talk-the-new-propaganda-2006001.html
Terror has become so ingrained in our lexicon and used to cow people into obedience by propaganda on left and right that has become bereft of meaning.
Just peruse latest headlines where empty suits and generals say, "We have to WIN in Afghanistan."
How do they define winning?
By denying safe refuge in Afghanistan to the Taliban to prevent terror from happening in the USA, the land of red, white, and blue--the land of milk and honey.
Even Wikipedia reflects the battles: a search for "Taliban" yields "Taliban Insurgency."
A rhetorical question for y'all: did King George III consider the Americans fighting his rule as insurgents or patriots? So what do you think their brother Pashtuns think of the Taleban?
Consider the case of the poor apostrophe ('), "The text character ’ (used to mark the possessive or to show the omission of letters or number," (emphasis added) now used by every charlatan. huckster, and national nabob when they write or say "the nation's interest."
A nation, by not being a person, cannot own anything that an apostrophe can indicate possession of.
At least "nation's interest" has a bit more meaning than "American self-interest," as the former presumably includes specific institutions like the US government whlie the latter has an amorphous connotation commentators can stretch the metaphor into whatever suits their political or world views.
"American intersts," the "interst of America" and the uber leader of cliches "US national security," all amount to fictions, words strung together to impart some meaning to whatever argument advocated by the person making it.
Whose America indeed? The poor, the sick, the lame, the downtrodden without campaign cash to bribe legislators like can companies endowed with personhood by the Supreme Court?
Just because one writes 'tis does not make it so.
Do not fool yourself into thinking this an unimportant analysis for, "Opinions have caused more ills than the plague or earthquakes on this little globe of ours." (Voltaire as translated at Wikiquote)
Consider, the metaphors above lead to wars.
Wars kill people, human beings whether or not one uses the fiction of "collateral damage" rather than "collateral murder."
Politicians decry and civilians and soldiers--warning, graphic photo of a casualty comes with this link--and insurgents die.
Casualty? Casualty my ass. Ain't nuthin' casual about death or maiming.
As Little Steven said, "True patriotism means questioning every m**********r everytime." (Sis, sorry 'bout the12 letter imprecation; Little Steven said it.)
writing in the 21 June edition of the London Independent:[Following the latest in semantics on the news? Journalism and the Israeli government are in love again. It's Islamic terror, Turkish terror, Hamas terror, Islamic Jihad terror, Hezbollah terror, activist terror, war on terror, Palestinian terror, Muslim terror, Iranian terror, Syrian terror, anti-Semitic terror...
But I am doing the Israelis an injustice. Their lexicon, and that of the White House – most of the time – and our reporters' lexicon, is the same. Yes, let's be fair to the Israelis. Their lexicon goes like this: Terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror, terror.
How many times did I just use the word "terror"? Twenty. But it might as well be 60, or 100, or 1,000, or a million. We are in love with the word, seduced by it, fixated by it, attacked by it, assaulted by it, raped by it, committed to it. It is love and sadism and death in one double syllable, the prime time-theme song, the opening of every television symphony, the headline of every page, a punctuation mark in our journalism, a semicolon, a comma, our most powerful full stop: (emphasis added)
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/fighting-talk-the-new-propaganda-2006001.html
Terror has become so ingrained in our lexicon and used to cow people into obedience by propaganda on left and right that has become bereft of meaning.
Just peruse latest headlines where empty suits and generals say, "We have to WIN in Afghanistan."
How do they define winning?
By denying safe refuge in Afghanistan to the Taliban to prevent terror from happening in the USA, the land of red, white, and blue--the land of milk and honey.
Even Wikipedia reflects the battles: a search for "Taliban" yields "Taliban Insurgency."
A rhetorical question for y'all: did King George III consider the Americans fighting his rule as insurgents or patriots? So what do you think their brother Pashtuns think of the Taleban?
Consider the case of the poor apostrophe ('), "The text character ’ (used to mark the possessive or to show the omission of letters or number," (emphasis added) now used by every charlatan. huckster, and national nabob when they write or say "the nation's interest."
A nation, by not being a person, cannot own anything that an apostrophe can indicate possession of.
At least "nation's interest" has a bit more meaning than "American self-interest," as the former presumably includes specific institutions like the US government whlie the latter has an amorphous connotation commentators can stretch the metaphor into whatever suits their political or world views.
"American intersts," the "interst of America" and the uber leader of cliches "US national security," all amount to fictions, words strung together to impart some meaning to whatever argument advocated by the person making it.
Whose America indeed? The poor, the sick, the lame, the downtrodden without campaign cash to bribe legislators like can companies endowed with personhood by the Supreme Court?
Just because one writes 'tis does not make it so.
Do not fool yourself into thinking this an unimportant analysis for, "Opinions have caused more ills than the plague or earthquakes on this little globe of ours." (Voltaire as translated at Wikiquote)
Consider, the metaphors above lead to wars.
Wars kill people, human beings whether or not one uses the fiction of "collateral damage" rather than "collateral murder."
Politicians decry and civilians and soldiers--warning, graphic photo of a casualty comes with this link--and insurgents die.
Casualty? Casualty my ass. Ain't nuthin' casual about death or maiming.
As Little Steven said, "True patriotism means questioning every m**********r everytime." (Sis, sorry 'bout the12 letter imprecation; Little Steven said it.)
Image from Anarchtees
Friday, July 2, 2010
"There's A Canopy of Greed Holding Me Down."
"Now I always thought this would be
You see the land of milk and honey
But I come to find out it's all hate and money
There's a canopy of greed holding me down."
"[I]f you lose that undercurrent of divine reverence..."
"...you lose the point of all life. Even if it's the final bite of bluefin, even if you watch in horror as the polar bears starve to death, even as you hear of nations murdering each other over dusty strips of dirt and pathetic definitions of God, you must, without fail, hold that sense of wonder and awe, nurture it at every turn. Because once that's gone, we're doomed for certain."
From Mark Morford Notes and Errata, "The Last Tuna Nigira."
Morford turns an essay on dwindling blue fin tuna fishing stocks into meditation on the nature of humanity, ending with the paragraph quoted above.
[Simply put, we are gorging our way to the bluefin's oblivion. Stocks in the Gulf of Mexico are now considered to be in full collapse with maybe 9,000 total fish left, all suddenly made far more dire and irreversible by the BP spill, which is destroying millions of fish eggs right at the start of spawning season.
From Mark Morford Notes and Errata, "The Last Tuna Nigira."
Morford turns an essay on dwindling blue fin tuna fishing stocks into meditation on the nature of humanity, ending with the paragraph quoted above.
[Simply put, we are gorging our way to the bluefin's oblivion. Stocks in the Gulf of Mexico are now considered to be in full collapse with maybe 9,000 total fish left, all suddenly made far more dire and irreversible by the BP spill, which is destroying millions of fish eggs right at the start of spawning season.
The Atlantic stocks are faring little better, as international fishing boats race to cash in before it's too late. Japan -- by far the largest consumer (but certainly not the only one) -- is taking 80 percent of the catch, caring almost not a whit, citing dubious claims of "tradition" and a cultural need for its rapaciousness. Most depressing, with the exception of Greenpeace and a handful of other groups, few people seem to care about the fate of the bluefin.
Perhaps they should. These astonishing, warm-blooded creatures represent, as the story points out, more than just the last wild food stock in the ocean -- a staggering enough idea all by itself considering the extent of our dependency on the ocean as an essential food. Bluefin are not like salmon or shrimp. They cannot be easily farmed. They cannot be replaced. They are a huge and hugely wild creature, more powerful than we even fully understand.
Destroy them, and we destroy more than just another everyday, "disposable" species. Their destruction will be a profound marker, a signifier of something far larger and more ominous. Like the honeybees, like the drowning polar bears, like the fresh water crisis, the end of tuna will be of those epic fails we look back upon in a few years and say, "There. Right there. That was one of the signs." We don't get many more.
My Republican moment came as I was nearing the end of the piece, feeling sickened and increasingly depressed, to the point where a sense of abject fatalism finally struck, a sense of just giving up, that wickedly painful moment where the heart has to step away from the scene before it implodes, and the survivalist/capitalist mind takes over and just powers through the nightmare, greedily gabbing on to whatever bits of gristle it can suckle.
This ugly voice said: Fine. If we're about to run out, if this is the last gasp of this splendid creature, if there's really nothing I can do about it anymore, well, to hell with it. I'd better get to my fave sushi joint quick and order a big batch of spice tuna rolls before it's too late
.
I mean, might as well, right? Isn't this what humans do best? Isn't this the Republican way, applicable to everything from SUVs to guns, cigarettes to global warming, to mutter something along the lines of: "Really, who f-ing cares if it's the last tuna on earth? Who cares about words like sacred, ethics, reverence? The fish tastes good! It's ours to gobble up as much as we like! Top of the food chain, baby!]
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
"The Book of Eli":
OH!!! MY!!! Gawd!!!
Saw this movie recently and still stunned by it.
It has everything: post apocalyptic wasteland, a prophet, redemption, the Bible in a central role, and Denzel as the good guy and Gary Oldman as the baddie.
Violent but at least 1 scene shot from middle distance in black and white so not very graphic..
This movie, along with Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul - Greatest Hits
, may just have saved my life.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
For the Anarchist on Your Gift List
Found awesome tee shirt co., Anarchtee, from an ad on Alternet.
They use American made, 100% cotton tee shirts for their designs and also sell skirts and tote bags.
Designs that made me think as well as 1 to make every progressive smile, a satirical Sarah Palin Lobotomy shirt, "Drill Baby Drill."
So buy 1 for the anarchist or progressive or the sane person on your gift list.
Peace
They use American made, 100% cotton tee shirts for their designs and also sell skirts and tote bags.
Designs that made me think as well as 1 to make every progressive smile, a satirical Sarah Palin Lobotomy shirt, "Drill Baby Drill."
So buy 1 for the anarchist or progressive or the sane person on your gift list.
Peace
Friday, June 18, 2010
My Mentor, Metaphor the Great
After I staggered, struggled , stumbled 2 blocks S to Lake Eola--with the eviscerating June sunlight stabbing shards of rainbows into my brain--my steps took me to the left where I alighted at the Japanese pagoda at the NE qaudrant and chanced upon my mentor, Metaphor the Great.
A local writer of some renown--columnist for the Sentinel and author of several ironic crime novels set in Orlando environs--sat and considered the world with his somewhat rumpled and rheumy eyes.
Seeing me, he chortled, took a glug from his flask, and greeted me with, "Tommy, do you have anything for me to read yet?"
"Well, not really, just some crazed scribblings."
"Fear not, grasshopper
, of such scribblings came Miller's Tropic of Cancer
".
So he asked, "Why do you labour so to try to write what you see as truth?"
Insert some of my incoherent grumblings here.
"You only have to look at some physical, factual fact and relate that to anything else to make a point. Close you eyes, breathe deep, open them and tell me the first thing you see."
"That strangler fig to the to our left."
"Hmmm, top branches turning brown, I see a metaphor for the decay of a society that has gotten away from core principles."
"Whose principles? What core?
"Why Judeo-Christian of course."
"So you claim to have become a Christian?" (In my astounded tone.)
"No, just use the phrase, hoping to get my column syndicated. If I really sold out, I'd write of Democrats as spawns of Satan.
"Yeah, that'l get you some coin from Fox. How about that tattooed lady jogger with the nose ring?"
"A sign our younger generation chooses to use their freedom to define themselves and create a new paradigm for these United States, the Phoenix ink on her back a sign great civilizations rise from the ashes of the old."
"Damn, I hate the word "paradigm."
"Pule not on my paradigms, pilgrim, they serve for naught but to model what I see."
"Who can sat what anyone sees?"
"It doesn't matter; nothing matters."
"Maybe everything matters.
"You stole that from Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
."
"Couldn't find a Shakespeare line."
"There you have it lad, since we have nothing new under the sun, just steal something good."
With that, Mr. Metaphor heaved himself to his feet, straightened his silk paisley tie and tried to tuck his rumples striped oxford into his Dockers pants, and stepped off in his topsiders towards the Sentinel building.
A local writer of some renown--columnist for the Sentinel and author of several ironic crime novels set in Orlando environs--sat and considered the world with his somewhat rumpled and rheumy eyes.
Seeing me, he chortled, took a glug from his flask, and greeted me with, "Tommy, do you have anything for me to read yet?"
"Well, not really, just some crazed scribblings."
"Fear not, grasshopper
, of such scribblings came Miller's Tropic of Cancer".So he asked, "Why do you labour so to try to write what you see as truth?"
Insert some of my incoherent grumblings here.
"You only have to look at some physical, factual fact and relate that to anything else to make a point. Close you eyes, breathe deep, open them and tell me the first thing you see."
"That strangler fig to the to our left."
"Hmmm, top branches turning brown, I see a metaphor for the decay of a society that has gotten away from core principles."
"Whose principles? What core?
"Why Judeo-Christian of course."
"So you claim to have become a Christian?" (In my astounded tone.)
"No, just use the phrase, hoping to get my column syndicated. If I really sold out, I'd write of Democrats as spawns of Satan.
"Yeah, that'l get you some coin from Fox. How about that tattooed lady jogger with the nose ring?"
"A sign our younger generation chooses to use their freedom to define themselves and create a new paradigm for these United States, the Phoenix ink on her back a sign great civilizations rise from the ashes of the old."
"Damn, I hate the word "paradigm."
"Pule not on my paradigms, pilgrim, they serve for naught but to model what I see."
"Who can sat what anyone sees?"
"It doesn't matter; nothing matters."
"Maybe everything matters.
"You stole that from Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
.""Couldn't find a Shakespeare line."
"There you have it lad, since we have nothing new under the sun, just steal something good."
With that, Mr. Metaphor heaved himself to his feet, straightened his silk paisley tie and tried to tuck his rumples striped oxford into his Dockers pants, and stepped off in his topsiders towards the Sentinel building.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Governor Great Tan: gay or bisexual?
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2010/06/charlie-crist-checks-out-floridas-beaches.html
While rumours have swirled for decades of Charlie Crist and his closeted sexuality, it never mattered to me what Governor Flip Flop did sexually and still doesn't even though some "Christians" go nuts at the possibility.
Like Senior Pastor Carl Gallups wrote on the Hickory Hammock Baptist Church in Milton, Fl, who wrote: "[I]t is the RADICAL homosexual agenda that concerns me deeply and concerns me the most. The agenda that seeks to make homosexuality an "alternative" lifestyle, complete with child adoption, marriage rights, insurance and other legal protections and a "special" class of laws of "protection." Of course there is also the matter of "political correctness" and "sensitivity training," especially as it is administered through our government (public) school system. It concerns me deeply, when small children are indoctrinated into the belief that a godless, hedonistic and dangerous lifestyle is a viable "alternative."]
Unholy crap, where should a rational person start in analyzing the above quote (pun intended)?
Perhaps start with adoption by homosexuals in FL where a judge ruled "Based on the evidence presented from experts from all over this country and abroad, it is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person's ability to parent."
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/05/07/rekers-beliefs-no-consistent-with-the-science-rekers-himself-not-credible
The state of FL presented testimony from a Dr. George Rekers which the judge deemed not credible,"Dr. Rekers' testimony was far from a neutral and un-biased recitation of the relevant scientific evidence. Dr. Rekers' beliefs are motivated by his strong ideo-logical and theological convictions that are not con-sistent with the science. Based on his testimony and demeanor at trial, the court can not consider his tes-timony to be credible nor worthy of forming the basis of public policy."
Seems the good doctor got hoisted on his own petard.
So it mattered not a whit to me of rumours on Crist's sexuality.
Did not matter but pic of Governor No Convictions ogling a female's buttocks sid make me laugh.
Maybe he's bi. He did always seem too well dressed to be completely straight, not that there is anything wrong with that.
One ought look at political policy to ponder upon politicians, not what they do in their private lives.
Blind Melon: "No Rain"
C'mon, buy the damn song. Surely you can spend %0.99. Heck you can download the whole album legally for only $5.00.
I did.
You know you want to. Do it; you'll be glad you did.
y
Monday, June 14, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Magic seek a soul
One must seriously question whether the Orlando Magic have a soul, much less a beating heart, because not even a rat, a donkey, whupped dog, or even a proverbial dead horse would accept the kind of beating handed out to them by the Celtics. No spark of life for the first three games. Too little too late.
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