Tannishblog

Rick Santorum can’t even play at celebrity. As the heir apparent of all things nasty about Christian Dominionist Extremism, he can’t even attend a book signing without an escort of hired thugs. To our guy Rick, a carload of teenage women is too threatening; they must be forcibly removed from the local Barnes & Noble by a rent-a-thug in full police regalia. As it turns out this example of Delaware’s Finest cannot be reached for comment. But a spokesperson from the bookstore chain claims that management wasn’t consulted before Mr. Triggerhappy took matters into his own hands to expel them from the store and to threaten the ladies with jail time for the gumption of speaking their own minds within earshot of the Exalted Senator.

I’m curious as to the screening process used to filter out the progressives from the off-duty state police rosters, or how they pick only the worst and dimmest officers to “maintain peace”. Also. I wonder about exactly how much money one gets for such an obviously dangerous assignment and from whom does the money originate?

This unfortunate by-product of our current leadership is quite telling: ordinary people, the youth of America no less, have no right to attend public events. These are the same kids, mind you, whose names are being fed into the Department of Defense’s computers in preparation for the inevitable upcoming draft. They aren’t allowed to voice their opinions, but they’ll be allowed to die for the glory of our Corporate Hegemony as a God-given right. And as we all know George W. Bush is Lord.

Such behavior in public as exhibited by these young women cannot be seen too lightly; as the conservatives know, these children must be punished – for their own good - as example to all God-fearing Americans. The Christian Right, as exemplified in Senator Santorum is under attack, and so only militaristic responses are appropriate. Such unwholesome behavior in the face of a Senatorial book promotion will, I feel, seriously abbreviate the good Senator’s (gack!) book-signing tour, which will adversely affect the profitability of said Tome of Enlightenment, thereby undermining the possibility of another publisher’s willingness to take on future projects by this author. (See? Some good can come of this!)

Ever since I returned from vacation two weeks ago, I feel disassociated from the blogosphere, the news, and even my own life. Reportage, such as is it on a blog, is work these days. I broke the spell. I work on translating my vacation journal to a digital format to avoid the tedium of researching for blogdom.

But what is there to write about? The news hasn’t changed much this last month: Cindy and Casey Sheehan (yawn), sure she’s a figurehead of the anti-incumbent crowd, but the usual suspects are acting in the usual ways – how boring; the pullout of Gaza is interesting in light of my latest adventures, but most Americans don’t really care, and the news media is getting the whole thing wrong – as usual; Downing Street seems to have gone down the tubes while I was away (another yawn). Viewing the media top stories is like viewing summer reruns; nothing has changed, the punch lines are all the same and even the laugh tracks sound strained.

Here are four op-eds from NY Times today: All boring.

Walking the Wrong Way: About the ill-concieved Freedom Walk planned for September 11 this year. It’s too late to bolster support for the war, both the war and its attendant propaganda campaign are lost causes. Bushies are gathering on the poop deck of a sinking ship (yawn).

The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan: A brief history of Karl “Don’t Call Me Marx” Rove and his favorite tool, the smear campaign, and its failure to work on Cindy Sheehan. More pabulum about the failing war and America’s slow awakening to reality. The really sad part is America will never unite behind punishing our leaders for their crimes; end result, nothing (yawn).

Live From Gaza: A New View of Israel: a Palestinian viewpoint that is anything but new: “We won’t be satisfied until Israel is exterminated,” and Gaza is just the start (yawn). Such single-minded disassociation from reality is worthy of an American political regime. Hello, folks, the Jews are winning! Divorcing the remaining Israeli Arabs from reality, those who believe (mistakenly) that there will ever again be a Palestine, has not fared well.

The Dispossessed: Elie Wiesel pipes in about Gaza, remonstrating Palestinians for doing their favorite dance: Death to Israel Shuffle. Specifically he mentions the fist-pumping that is endemic in the Palestinian so-called “Authority” for acting as thugs by reveling in the pain of the relocated Jews of Gaza (*Blink, blink* – I must have fallen asleep). To celebrate another’s pain is foolish and against the Koran. These hate mongers are neither good citizens nor good Arabs. It’s no wonder that they have not been able to create jobs, economies, or education for their people. Their singular attitude is causing their extinction faster than anything the Israelis can dish out (yawn).

There’s nothing new on the news, nothing worthy of attention; as humanity make the same mistakes all over again, as different players rewrite the same plays for the benefit of nobody.

I think I’ll go to sleep early tonight…

Cindy Sheehan, move over. It’s not that I think your story has run its course, not at all – its just another one needs to be brought to life. That is before it’s stamped into the blood-soaked quicksand that is All Things Iraq.

Have you ever heard of Bunnatine Greenhouse? You should become acquainted with her story, at least. Political Sapphire is beating the drum and all good, Bush-fearing liberals should dance along…

Watch me dance (don’t laugh too loudly…)

Crossposted @ Left of Center:

Axis of Logic is validating my world view (again) with a feature article about Fundamentalist Christianity as a “Dangerous Force.”

The Roman Empire’s unlikely demise came three centuries later. Edward Gibbon, author of “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, blames Rome’s fall in part on the ascendancy of Christianity.

[…]

America is behind in cloning and stem cell research, now led by South Korean, Italian and British scientists. American fundamentalists seek to outlaw stem cell research on the arbitrary and totally unproven premise that “life begins at conception,” a recent concept contrary to the teaching of St. Augustine and the allegedly infallible Roman papacy for some 1,500 years.

[…]

President Bush’s recent endorsement of teaching “Intelligent Design” perpetuates this same denial of science. ID proponents have never had an article on ID published in any peer-reviewed scientific journal. They do not conduct experiments that would prove or falsify their hypothesis. Their religious conjecture under the guise of science makes no useful predictions, nor can they model it mathematically. There are no research labs doing ID science because “Intelligent design” is not science, it is religion!

My snark runs thusly: If an omniscient entity created all; why is therepain, war, hatred, and greed? If there is a god, so equipped as to have created everything out of nothing, why does s/he show the same imperfect human faults and frailties? And, if there is such an all-knowing creator being, surely when looking down upon us, s/he must know s/he F&*#ed up!

So much for divine perfection.

If you can’t shoot the messenger, shoot the message: that’s what pro-slaughter warhawks are trying to do with Cindy Sheehan. Rush Limburger compares her to Bill Burkett, who tried to blow the whistle about Our Favorite Shrubbery’s lack of National Guard duties. Bill O’Reilly, as usual, claims that Cindy is “associating with the most radical elements in this country,” but then he likes to call others extremists when they disagree with his extremism. David Horrorwitz on MSNBC states that Cindy “exploits the death of her own son,” and by saying so exploits her anti-war message for his own agenda.

It’s the message, the meaning of Cindy’s protest that’s being smeared and obscured; she just wants an answer to a simple question: What is this “Noble Cause” the President talk about that led her son to fight and die in a war overseas?

But the answer is increasingly obvious: there is none. What we are doing to Iraq is anything but “Noble,” and we have no “Cause” to do it. Our Vacationing Shrubbery cannot respond; to answer honestly would condemn him to answering other tough questions he has on the table, to answer dishonestly would likely lead to the impeachment some optimistic Democratic-type dream about. You know the phrase: Catch 22 (thanks, Joseph Heller, wherever you are.)

Like any massive object, American political opinion is turning the corner. Too late for hundreds of fine American idealist killed and wounded, too late for their families, whose lives will forever be scorched by the flames of war, and far too late for the thousands of Muslims who, just like their American Christian counterparts, just wanted to live out their lives as unaffected by political ideology as possible – even in a difficult political environment. These so-called “Brown People,” are just like us. It is important to recognize this fact.

Because our nation is more capable of military retribution, real or contrived, for acts of extreme violence toward this country does not make it a god-given right to destroy another nation. There are many nations in our sad, confused world that are killing off their people, far more heinously and hideously than did Saddam Hussein. The question I see no one asking is why not war against these states?

Cindy Sheehan’s question is akin to most blunt political queries: either academic or rhetorical. If academic, there are no answers that do not involve personal bias, if rhetorical; the answers are so obvious as to not require utterance.

Such is the case against this war: Why are we here? Because some in America believe that after the cold war ends, the time for American Imperialism begins. Why in Iraq? Because that’s where the oil is, and we, as a national economy, are too afraid to take the necessary sacrifices to find other fuel sources. Finally: what is this so-called “Noble Cause?” Fattening the coffers of war profiteers, of which there are many in Texas.

Finally! Someone understands how children learn.

Imagine, if you will, a child on the cusp of first grade from a stable and nurturing background who feels OK about himself. This fictitious child will trust his parents as they tell him how much fun he can have in school because he know they are trustworthy and look after him. He will be nervous, but not fearful about his new adventure. He will trust his new surrogate parent that is his teacher, because in his experience grown-ups are nice.

This child will make new friends easily because he likes himself, thereby assimilating into the classroom environment smoothly. He will soon begin to look forward to seeing his new friends – including his new grown-up teacher friend – and will want to go to school. He will learn because his teacher and his parents repeatedly stress the importance of education, and because he wants to get positive feedback from the adults in his life, which further reinforces his wellbeing.

This hypothetical child will excel throughout his educational career because he has the necessary emotional education to achieve. With this sound base and firm understanding of his “OK-ness” he will develop the social network needed to further a social education. So it is that a foundation of emotional stability creates a social cohesion that leads to educational excellence.

No amount of educational programs mandated by governments of any level will be able to compensate for a firm grounding provided by good parenting. It is impossible for any mandatory testing and accountability program to reward a child in a way that is emotionally satisfying; in a way that leads to a level of self-esteem that creates self-motivation. If we want to revamp the education in this country, we need to address the standards of upbringing to which our children are exposed.

That’s why I’ve harbored fantasies about child-rearing classes as part of schools curriculum starting at junior high school. Why not? Our nation demands, in its infinite folly, what used to be called sex education in my day, but what has been pared down to a more politically correct moniker of Teen Health - wherein a detailed study of human reproduction occurs. In Sixth- and again in Eighth-grade our children are taught inadvertently how to become Deadbeat Dads and Unwed Mothers.

Talk about the Law of Unintended Consequences!

It’s only fair to our hapless youth to also teach them the responsibilities of such powerful new reproductive concepts as mandated by the Federal Government; other skills should be taught as well - such as child psychology, household economics, basic first aid, conflict resolution and anger management, to name just a few useful skills not found in education curriculum. With these and other tools at hand, future parents would have a better chance to ground their children in the emotional and social foundations necessary for academic achievement.

Among other benefits, well-centered children will improve the cost-effectiveness of educational budgets by reducing the cost of special education to provide services for behavioral disorders, policing schools, and other modern social problems. Perhaps the surplus could be spent on improving the monetary compensations for teachers as an industry, thereby motivating more of our best and brightest to be teachers.

I know – I’m dreaming again…

Having just returned from Israel and learned about several of the most pressing issues with which that state is wrestling from an actual Israeli, I find it hard to suffer the foolish, arrogant mandates emanating from the American mediaplex regarding what Israel should or should not do. As the reversal of Jewish settlements in the Gaza region is foremost in the news this week, the NY Times has the chutzpah to tell the Bush Administration (not that they’re listening) what not to accept from Ariel Sharon (not that he cares).

Who wrote this? No by-line is present on the website; perhaps the hack should step forward. Anyone with credentials on the matter would surely list them, the lack of such braggadocio is telling.

What the NY Time is trying to tell our deaf leaders is to not let up on the demand to force Israel to relinquish control of the West Bank. Apparently, to this unnamed reporter, compromise solutions that affect the safety of the State of Israel are unacceptable. Israel is not supposed to give a little to get a little in return, but to give all and hope for fair treatment from a fledgling authority that hasn’t yet been tested from the people it is supposed to represent, an institution that cannot even be called a government. This article is full of “Should” and “Must” as if spoken by one of real authority who just happens to want to remain anonymous; curious, that.

Boston.com has actual reportage occurring on this issue, offered by Herbert C. Kelman, co-chair of the Middle East Seminar ad Harvard University and a professor emeritus of social ethics. The differences in credentials (or lack thereof) clearly shows; facts are laid out, consequences of possible mishandling the Gaza pullout from both sides are expressed, and the inevitable “Shoulds” are offered light-handedly and backed up with cool reason. Professor Kelman even offers a framework for future peace negotiations that attempt to alleviate the largest problem in this complicated issue: mutual distrust.

Professor Kelman insists on the possibility of a two state solution. From my own observations as a neophyte political outsider, I return home from Israel convinced that neither party concerned truly wants a joint custody agreement; Israel as a nation and as an economy is just too small.

I recall driving past the fenced-off Palestinian sections outside of Jerusalem. They were slums. For almost sixty years, while the world forced the Israeli Jews to the negotiating table, the Palestinians taught their children how to hate and kill Jews. Hamas, once a social service organization, used money that should have gone to education and welfare to train and equip suicide bombers and other radical factions within the so-called Palestinian state. Outside the same fences, the Jewish people planted millions of trees to turn the once barren deserts into a fertile landscape on which they can build a nation and grow an economy. Inside the fence lay desolation of a land and its people, self-inflicted; outside, a flourishing of the same land by different people. To whom does the land belong: to those who nourish or to those who destroy?

And the American media, so sure of itself, loathes a winner and roots for the underdog that will chew off it’s own leg to prove a point.

You’ve all heard this by now: (From Reuters )

“The terrorists cannot defeat us on the battlefield,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “The only way they can win is if we lose our nerve. That will not happen on my watch.”

The terrorists, who loom large in the collective imagination of our so-called leaders, cannot defeat us because we’re defeating ourselves. Terrorism and/or its alleged perpetrators have nothing to do with our nations plummeting credibility – not only worldwide, but within our borders as well. As Frank Rich of the NY Times has noted, this was is already over, and we’ve lost. One would expect a paper like the Times to say such things, but a more telling conviction is how the Washington Post hasn’t said a peep to deny such claims.

As for loosing nerve: perhaps that explains why Mr. “Crawford Cowboy” is too chicken to meet with one poor grieving mother. As inferred, such will not happen on his “watch.” It begs the question as to what he’s watching, the dissolution of American credibility or re-runs of Bonanza?

“Withdrawing our troops from Iraq prematurely would betray the Iraqi people and would cause others to question America’s commitment to spreading freedom and winning the war on terror,” Bush said. “So we will honor the fallen by completing the mission for which they gave their lives and by doing so we will ensure that freedom and peace prevail,”

I find it interesting to note how he is more willing to continue to betray the American people under the guise of refusing to betray the Iraqi people. After all, it’s not like he has to worry about re-election. America has failed, on his watch, to spread anything but anarchy, lies and imperialism. So, if freedom is not being spread and the “War on Terror” ™ cannot be won, as is increasingly obvious to even the most devout NeoCon, what reason to stay this disastrous course?

Finally, exactly who are the “fallen” that we’re supposed to be honoring? Perhaps it’s the fallen approval ratings suffered by our “stick to you guns” administration, perhaps it is the future falling out of congressional Republicans who face the very real possibility of becoming used car salesmen, or other proverbial flimflam artists, in a couple years. At least we know they have the skills at hand for their inevitable career changes.

As for our Chickenhawk-in-Chief, well, he can soon enjoy a permanent vacation paid for in full by the blood of Iraqi non-combatants, the sweat and idealism of the American military, and the pain and grief of some of the same people who voted him into office.

Every time I read this blog, I com away scratching my head, literally and figuratively, as I ponder his words for days after. David Brin is BRILLIANT! To Wit:

Or will Pax Americana last forever, as our mad neocons contend?

(Hint: their behavior is actively shortening Pax Americana’s reign. Indeed, that is a chief complaint against these bright fools. At present I see no possible WCN on the immediate horizon that can claim to be better than PA has been, for 60 years of relative peace and growth. But the neocons will end it all, the way Alcibiades helped end the reign of flawed-but-noble Athens.)

Lately he’s been whacking both political camps in America - and with good reason! Who else do you know that can remain objective enough (or brave enough) to blast all camps with one salvo? I urge you to read his latest few postings, as they are connected, and come away viewing the world a little differently. See: Contrary Brin

I’ve got some catching up to do, after vacation and all. My mailbox had 1107 emails in it when I got back. buried deep in the pile are the following two gems, courtesy of Lama Suryas Das:

The whole idea of meditation is to develop an entirely different way of dealing with things, where you have no purpose at all. In fact, meditation is dealing with the question of whether or not there is such a thing as purpose. One is not on the way somewhere. Or rather, one is on the way and is also at the destination, at the same time.

~ Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
from Meditation in Action

This from the founder of the Shambhala tradition of Western Buddhism, how was remarkable in his grasp of western psychology and how to reframe the dharma to appeal to the modern mindset.

But this weeks quote hits a bit harder, I think, because it doesn’t come from a reknown buddhist teacher, but from a contemporary American novelist who happens to think like one. To wit:

Nearly everyone is aware of dramatic changes in the world. Yet we continue to live in the assumption that we can ride out the changes without changing ourselves, coasting, as we have always coasted, on the historic wave of human development. What it will take to wake us up is a wave of equal size traveling in the opposite direction. That wave is already on its way.

~ Verlyn Klinkenborg, NY Times

Can’t we all feel the freight train coming? Complacency has its price, and it’s steep. Humanity has been far too willing to do nothing about the state of the world. We’ll pay for that, and soon.