Tannishblog

In the doleful spirit of this blog, which has evolved on its own as a Chronology of Civilization’s Demise, I offer Treehugger’s take on eight other, non-oil things we are running out of. Peak Everything.

As DailyKos notes: Its a Great Day to Be Obama. Super delegates flock to his side. Some Super Delegates are more super than others…

Even Ron Paul, that other mover and shaker of the status quo, grudgingly admits Barack is the most likely candidate to halt the Iraqi Debacle.

I have always noticed a direct correlation between the frequency of a candidate’s name being mentioned in the press and the likelihood of that candidate gaining the White House. Even as a kid, I have correctly guessed the winner in a presidential election. This time, barring a Robert Kennedy moment, Barack is our man. And I will bet anything that Hillary is betting on a Robert Kennedy moment - at this point, it’s her only chance. Such is the cynicism inherent in the Clinton mindset.

Poor girl…

Today’s New York Times has what may be the most important article you will read this year:

Behind Military Analysts, the Pentagon’s Hidden Hand

It’s a Long piece; 11 internet-sized pages. Do yourself and your loved ones a favor by reading the whole thing. Understand the heights of cynicism and depths of arrogance of our Military/Industrial Complex. Understand how this machinery is in control of our government, our media, and our lives. Finally, understand that we need to do something about this.

Read it and weep.

UPDATE:

My hero Glenn Greenwald bends the pointing finger of the NY Times inward to point out media duplicity in which even the Times themselves partook. Atta boy!

Something I’ve always suspected is confirmed in Britain’s The Daily Mail: that the Age of the White Man is over. This is something I’ve both feared and hoped for since a boy. Even in my public school-victim ignorance, I have felt since I was 10 years old, that the White Man has built his own coffin. Ye Shall reap what you sow.

The truth is that we are masters of the world no more.

The global power shift from the West to the East is no longer just a matter of debate confined to learned journals and newspaper columns - it is a reality that is beginning to have a huge impact on our daily lives.

What would those Victorian masters of old have made of the fact that Chinese security men were on the streets of London this week, ordering our own police about and fighting running battles with British protesters while bewildered athletes carried the Olympic torch on its relay through the capital?

It was a brazen display of how confident China has become of its new place in the world, just as the British Government’s failure to take a firm stand on Chinese abuses of human rights shows how craven we have become.

[…]

Just as the 19th century was the British century, and the 20th century was the American century, the 21st century is the Asian century.

But the handover of global power from the UK to the U.S. was trivial compared to what is happening now.

The U.S. was Britain’s offspring, based on the same values and the same language.

It, too, was an Anglo-Saxon country, and passing the baton across the Atlantic ensured the continuation of the Anglo-Saxon world order, based on democracy, free trade and a belief in human rights, upheld through international institutions that both powers supported.

But the world order we have grown used to - and comfortable with - over the last century is coming to an end.

Napoleon III compared China to a sleeping giant and warned: “When China awakes, she will shake the world.”

After a long hibernation, China, and her 1.3 billion people - twice the population of the U.S. and EU combined - is awaking almost overnight.

[…]

China is spending 35 times as much on crude oil as it did eight years ago, and 23 times as much on copper.

As it builds gleaming skyscrapers on its fields, China alone consumes half the world’s cement and a third of its steel.

What is happening is so extraordinary that economists have had to invent a new word for it - this is not an economic cycle, but a supercycle, a shift in the world economy of historic proportions.

To my untrained eye, this explains much about America’s blatant oil grab in Iraq/Iran. (Have no fear, we’ll be in Iran if McCain wins.) Throughout history, wars have been about resources. Today the resource of interest is Oil. That won’t last, soon we’ll have wars over food, over fresh water. All within the ascending century.

And we may have already lost those future conflicts.

Europeans have, for half a millennium, been unchallenged as the global colonisers, but last month the respected Economist magazine dubbed the Chinese “The New Colonists”.

While the Congo in central Africa was once over-run by Belgians, it is now the Chinese that can be found wondering around its mining belts.

In Lubumbashi, the capital of the Congo’s copper-rich region Katanga, the Economist reported “a sudden Chinese invasion”.

Troubled Angola recently shunned Western financial aid because of the amount of Chinese money pouring into it, in return for commodities.

From Kazakhstan to Indonesia to Latin America, Chinese firms are gobbling up oil, gas, coal and metals.

We, as a Caucasian, patriarchal society, have reached our pinnacle and moved beyond to decline. Any attempts to deny this is fantasy. Not only is America in descendancy, so too is Western Culture, as the Daily Mail clearly sums up:

The U.S. company Orient Express complained when Tata tried to buy it, that any association with the Indian company would damage the Orient Express’s premium brand.

Responding, R K Krishna Kumar, a senior Tata executive, thundered that “Indian companies … will take their rightful place in the international arena.

“Enterprises and individuals must recognise and adapt to these fundamental economic changes. We believe that those with a fossilised frame of mind risk being marginalised.”

In a world in which we are no longer masters, it is a warning that we ignore at our peril.

The Wise give into the inevitable. Fools fight it.

A first for the usually dour Tannishblog: A fun and funny video! I bet you didn’t think I had it in me (A funnybone, that is…). I offer to you: A Gentleman’s Duel.

Nearly a thousand public school students and officials marched yesterday in downtown Chicago to protest a plague of student deaths on the city’s south side. The rally began in response to the slaying of Chavez Clarke, 18, in the parking lot of the Simeon Career Academy. As the Chicago Tribune reports:

Violence has claimed the lives of the 22 district students so far this school year, 20 of them by gun violence, a tally that does not include dropouts such as Shannon Brown, a former Fenger High School student who died hours before the rally, after a shooting on the Far South Side.

Chanting “We want futures, not funerals,” and displaying sign that read “Don’t Shoot. I Want To Grow Up,” the high school students and public officials marched around the James R. Thompson Center, which houses state offices.

The victims are often underprivileged kids who have turned to neighborhood gangs to gain stability and security in their lives. Low income, inner city youths have few options beyond street lives.

Kandyce Dean, a Simeon 11th grader who said she was friends with Clarke, believes getting guns off the street is the first step police must take to keep them safe. But she added that students, especially gang members, need more options, including job training, after-school programs and counseling.

“It’s gang-related. These boys are losing their minds. They don’t have anything to fall back on. They just look toward the streets,” Dean said. “They just don’t care.”

The usual posturing occurred. A prominent South Side Reverend called for $5,000 bounty on the shooters. Chicago’s Mayor Richard M. Daley asked the students to call authorities when they see a gun. But the kids know whats needed:

Bayti Dowling-Brown, a 12th grader at Truman Middle College Alternative High School, … and said officials should work with parents to help them keep their children away from gangs and violence.

“Many of these gang members don’t have parents home 24-7. . . . Being in a gang, it’s safety. You have a group that is going to back you up,” she said.

Students also called on police to take a more active role. Many said they want more police at schools and more officers working to get gangs and guns off the street.

Who says inner city students don’t get an education?

ABC News reports today that a Pentagon report that found no direct link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida is being suppressed. Plans to announce the report via press release are canceled. It wont be emailed to the media, nor is it a available online. the Pentagon will gladly mail the report on a CD to an “interested parties” requesting the information.

Speaking of suppression, the media has spent 3 days airing a certain governors soiled laundry instead of reporting a much more important event: the resignation of Admiral William J. Fallon, the military commander of US Middle East operations who hinted that he would resign if the government continued to push for war with Iran. Others have noted the media’s disinterest the good Admirals retirement. Or perhaps the Blaring Spitzer Story (no link, you already know…) is a smokescreen?

I’m not into conspiracy theories, most assume an incredible amount of coordination and secrecy. Most coincidences like this are a product of disparate forces working independently in close proximity. That said, I get worried at the pervasiveness of the pattern, wherein a monumental occurrence is foreshadowed in the Media by stories of - shall we say - Total Bimbosity.

Now Admiral Fallon steps down to little fanfare, and he will be just as quietly replaced by a more acquiescent soldier. Just as the General who opposed the surge quit to be replaced by General David Petraus. Even the ABC News story will be swept under a rock by tomorrow. We don’t need further proof of our National Gullibility.

But none of that is NEWS. It doesn’t have any sex in it. Or murder, or violence… or Missing Blonde Women…or Psychotic Celebrities… or…

Move Along. There’s nothing to see here.

As much as I would love to write about other subjects, I keep returning to News & Politics. I am appalled daily on how our nation has changed just in the last decade. This blog is developing a life of its own in enumerating the outrageous new course our nation has taken. What could be more enraging following image and the story behind it.

The Debate Link: Manchild in the Prison Land

Are you outraged yet? You should be.

The winners of the 2008 Blogisattva Awards were announced last Sunday. To my glee, I was honored with a win in the Best Achievement in Wonderful, Remarkable, Elegant Design category. But the best part is being introduced to so many remarkable Buddhist bloggers sharing their experiences and words. My bookmark files overfloeth.

Thank you all. Namaste.

The inclusion of this blog in a list of outstanding Buddhist blogs is surprising. I’m grateful, but perhaps unworthy. This is not exactly a “Buddhist Blog,” despite a few tentative attempts. Its more like a collection of political, leftist whining. Even in that aspect, it’s losing steam. Perhaps that’s a (insert appropriate judgment here) thing.

Neither do I necessarily feel I am a Buddhist, although I’ve taken vows, meditate (almost) daily and make continued progress to tame the mental patterns of my youth. I yearn to make a contribution to the social and spiritual awakening of your species. Reality says such an undertaking is yet beyond me; I am a Baby Buddhist, so I must make baby steps. For now, any influence I might own is small. So I focus on small tasks to positively improve the world around me:

• I can shed my rage in realization that is has done me only harm.
• I can stop dwelling on how I believe the world ought to function, in realization that “should” is a dangerous toy.
• I can speak only praise - or nothing at all, in realization that discretion is the better part of discussion.
• I can smile more - and mean it.
• I can shed excess emotive states, saving my energy for accomplishments.
• I can be gentle and courteous, professional and honest.

Having such modest aims as a centerpiece of Buddhist practice, I am amazed by its effectiveness. Within my tiny sphere of influence I has seen how these changes affect those around me and spread out exponentially. And when I forget, I recall the opening lines of the Metta Sutra:

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove…

Such are the tentative steps of a spiritual toddler on the path toward enlightenment. Its Changing my world, One smile at a time. Most of the smiles aren’t even mine.