UNHAPPY NAMES

How Many Child Prostitutes Is Bush Responsible for?By Bob Fertik

March 18, 2008.

An estimated 50,000 prostitutes, some as young as 13, are among the 1.2 million Iraqis who fled to Syria after Bush invaded.
George Bush has been tied to a prostitution ring involving as many as 50,000 women and girls. The prostitutes, some as young as 13, are among the 1.2 million desperate Iraqis who fled to Syria after Bush's invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the U.K. Independent.
Bush's invasion destroyed the Iraqi government and unleashed a wave of political and sectarian violence that has killed over 1 million Iraqis and forced 4 million to become refugees, according to the UN.
Facing starvation, as many as 50,000 women and girls have been forced into prostitution in Syria alone, according to Hana Ibrahim of the Women's Will Association.
"70 percent to 80 percent of the girls working this business in Damascus today are Iraqis," 23-year-old Abeer told the New York Times. "The rents here in Syria are too expensive for their families. If they go back to Iraq they'll be slaughtered, and this is the only work available."
According to the Times, "inexpensive Iraqi prostitutes have helped to make Syria a popular destination for sex tourists from wealthier countries in the Middle East. In the club's parking lot, nearly half of the cars had Saudi license plates."
Driving women and girls into prostitution violates numerous human rights agreements, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. George Bush himself denounced sex trafficking at the United Nations in 2003.
Bush's invasion of a country that posed no threat to the U.S. was illegal under both U.S. and international law, according to legal experts. Bush has been convicted of war crimes by citizen tribunals around the world, including New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Istanbul. Just las week, the towns of Brattleboro and Marlboro Vermont voted to indict and arrest Bush and Cheney.
In 2002 and 2003, Bush led a propaganda campaign to defraud Congress, the American people, and key allies into believing Iraq was a threat. Bush claimed Iraq had stockpiles of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons to use against the U.S., and was sharing them with Al Qaeda.
Speaking near Rochester NY, Bush later admitted, "See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
According to a recent study by the Center for Public Integrity, top Bush Administration officials told at least 935 lies about Iraq on 532 separate occasions. These included 259 lies by Bush, 254 lies by Secretary of State Colin Powell, 109 lies by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, 109 lies by Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, 56 lies by National Security Advisor Condi Rice, and 48 lies by Vice President Cheney.
The lies about Iraqi WMD's were manufactured by the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), which included the most senior White House staff: White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, Condi Rice, Stephen Hadley, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, Jim Wilkinson, Nick Calio, Michael Gerson, and Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby.

Our neo-totalitarians are planning new wars in the Middle East, Far East, Conga Line!

While his latest State of the Union speech justifies eavesdropping (without judicial warrants) on anybody in the United States that he wants to listen in on.

This is what we call dictatorship.

Dictatorship. Dictatorship.

And it is time we objected before he shoves us into World War Three.

Can we wait till the next election?

Only if the electronic voting machinery has paper trails or, perhaps, honest old-fashioned paper ballots.

In any case, with one voice let us say, “We’ve had enough of you. Go home to Crawford.

We’ll help you raise the money for a library, and you won’t ever have to read a book.

We the folks are not cruel even though we must now echo America’s spiritual ancestor Oliver Cromwell, in his order to the infamous Long Parliament:

‘You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing lately… Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. And so, in the name of that God who created the whale—Go!’”

Gore Vidal

************************************************************************

One or more words can become a lasting label and imprint upon memory.

Names that we would like to forget, but which cannot be forgotten because they are unforgettable.

Names that cause mind and body to shudder.

Hitler.

Pearl Harbor.

Hiroshima.

Nagasaki.

WACO.

9-11.

SHOCK AND AWE.

IRAQ.

Wednesday, March 19, marks five years since George W. Bush decided to shock and awe the world with his concocted and perfidious war.

Many eons after Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz and Bush are laid to rest, Iraq will still be radioactive.

The heart of darkness that Decider George W. Bush left in Iraq will remain a perennial radioactive nightmare.

A smiling, smirking, and dancing George W. Bush looks as dumb as an ox and harmless as a flea.

Murderers are not always monsters.

Mad Plato

************************************************************************

The three days and nights Jonah spent in the belly of a nauseous whale must have seemed like a serious jinx to the digestion-challenged mammal who extruded him much as the decent opinion of mankind has done to Bush.

One can see former President Jonah in his sumptuous presidential library happily catering to faith-based fans with animated scriptures rooted in “The Pet Goat.”

Not since the glory days of Watergate and Nixon’s Luciferian fall has there been so much written about the dogged deceits and creative criminalities of our rulers. We have also come to a point in this dark age where there is not only no hero in view but no alternative road unblocked. We are trapped terribly in a now that few foresaw and even fewer can define.

Under the ‘boy emperor’ George W. Bush (as Chalmers Johnson refers to him), we have entered the Dark Ages in earnest, pursuing a short-sighted path that can only accelerate our decline. For what we are now seeing are the obvious characteristics of the West after the fall of Rome: the triumph of religion over reason; the atrophy of education and critical thinking; the integration of religion, the state, and the apparatus of torture—a troika that was for Voltaire the central horror of the pre-Enlightenment world; as well as, today, the political and economic marginalization of our culture.... The British historian Charles Freeman published an extended discussion of the transition that took place during the late Roman empire, the title of which could serve as a capsule summary of our current rulers: ”The Closing of the Western Mind.”

Close observers of this odd presidency note that Bush, like his evangelical base, believes he is on a mission from God and that faith trumps empirical evidence.

We shouldn’t be surprised at the antipathy toward democracy displayed by the Bush administration. ... As already noted, fundamentalism and democracy are completely antithetical. The opposite of the Enlightenment, of course, is tribalism, groupthink; and more and more, this is the direction in which the United States is going. ... Anthony Lewis who worked as a columnist for the New York Times for thirty-two years, observes that what has happened in the wake of 9/11 is not just the threatening of the rights of a few detainees, but the undermining of the very foundation of democracy. Detention without trial, denial of access to attorneys, years of interrogation in isolation—these are now standard American practice, and most Americans don’t care. Nor did they care about the revelation in July 2004 (reported in Newsweek), that for several months the White House and the Department of Justice had been discussing the feasibility of canceling the upcoming presidential election in the event of a possible terrorist attack.” I suspect that the technologically inclined prevailed against that extreme measure on the ground that the newly installed electronic ballot machines could be so calibrated that Bush’s heirs would win handily no matter what (read Rep. Conyers’ report (.pdf file) on the rigging of Ohio’s vote).

Meanwhile, the indoctrination of the people merrily continues. “In a ’State of the First Amendment Survey‘ conducted by the University of Connecticut in 2003, 34 percent of Americans polled said the First Amendment ‘goes too far’; 46 percent said there was too much freedom of the press; 28 percent felt that newspapers should not be able to publish articles without prior approval of the government; 31 percent wanted public protest of a war to be outlawed during that war; and 50 percent thought the government should have the right to infringe on the religious freedom of ‘certain religious groups’ in the name of the war on terror.”

Now that George W. Bush has been caught illegally wiretapping fellow citizens he has taken to snarling about his powers as “a wartime president,” and so, in his own mind, he is above each and every law of the land. Oddly, no one in Congress has pointed out that he may well be a lunatic dreaming that he is another Lincoln but whatever he is or is not he is no wartime president. There is no war with any other nation...yet. There is no state called terror, an abstract noun like liar. Certainly his illegal unilateral ravaging of Iraq may well seem like a real war for those on both sides unlucky enough to be killed or maimed, but that does not make it a war any more than the appearance of having been elected twice to the presidency does not mean that in due course he was: in due course, our befuddled people will demand an investigation of those two irregular processes. Although he has done a number of things that under the old republic might have got him impeached, our current system protects him: incumbency-for-life seats have made it possible for a Republican majority in the House not to do its duty and impeach him for his incompetence in handling, say, the natural disaster that befell Louisiana and then the U.S. military itself.

Gore Vidal

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

READING BETWEEN THE BUCKS

March 14, 2008

President Bush Visits the Economic Club of New York
New York Hilton
New York, New York

[NOTE: THIS IS IN VERY ABRIDGED FORM]

THE PRESIDENT:

Thanks for giving me a chance to speak to the Economic Club of New York.

We inherited a recession.

[AND YOU WILL INHERIT MY 3,000,000,000,000 WAR]

And then there was the attacks of September the 11th, 2001…

[I’M STILL HAVING TROUBLE USING MY TO BE VERBS; AND YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T REALIZE THAT A MONTH LIKE SEPTEMBER CAN ATTACK]

And then we had corporate scandals. And I made the difficult decisions to confront the terrorists and extremists in two major fronts, Afghanistan and Iraq.

[THE OPERATIVE WORD IS FRONT FOR ALL OF YOU CONSPIRACY THEORISTS]

And then we had devastating natural disasters

[THAT SOME SAY I MAY HAVE HELPED ENGENDER SINCE I EVISCERATED

MOST OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL SAFEGUARDS THAT WERE IN PLACE BEFORE MY ADMINISTRATION]

A lot of folks are waiting to see what Congress intends to do. One thing that's certain that Congress will do is waste some of your money.

[LIKE I HAVE IN IRAQ. I GUESS LIFE DOES IMITATE ART]

Thank you for your time.

(Applause.)

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

KENNINGS

I am fortunate to be a teacher.

My subject chose me more than I chose it.

English.

"Oh, that was my worst subject", or "Oh, that was my favorite subject", are two typical replies I get when I tell strangers that I'm an English teacher.

Should there be a comma after that last quote? Which is correct...quote or quotation?

This is the why others feel uneasy around English teachers.

Biology and science were my favorite subjects in high school.

But a substitute that I had for my 10th grade English class lit the light of my interest in poetry.

It was the poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Byron and some poems by Wallace Stevens that did the trick.

I received A's in my high school chemistry class, not because of high test scores, but because of my humorous lab reports.

I learned to write in Chemistry class.

Thank you Mr. McDougal for letting me be zany and creative!

My Honors' courses at the University of Colorado introduced me to Plato, Camus, Baudlaire, Rimbaud, Kazantzakis...others.

From these authors I began reading the words of other Great writers and thinkers.

But this is not what I'm really writing about here.

My subject is kennings.

As an English teacher and poet, I teach and use

Figurative language in my own writing.

It is not always an easy thing to do.

My ninth-grade classes just finished reading Romeo and Juliet.

Yes, both movies were shown (I only show the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli version with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey; and the 1996 film with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.)

I ambushed my students with armies of similes and metaphors.

There were only a few examples of personification and alliteration;

But battalions of puns and oxymorons!

But what are kennings?

Here are some definitions:

Poetic synonyms.

In literature, a kenning is a magic poetic phrase, a figure of speech, substituted for the usual name of a person or thing. Kennings work much the same way as epithets and verbal formulae, and were commonly inserted into Old English poetic lines.

A short metaphorical description of a thing used in place of the thing’s name.

A new noun or noun phrase replaces a more familiar noun.

The word kenning is derived from the Old Norse phrase kenna ett vid, which means “to express a thing in terms of another”, and is found throughout Norse, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic literature.

Here are some examples:

Beowulf=bee-wolf=bear

gold=tears

raven harvest=corpse

valley trout=serpent

flame-farewelled and sleep of the sword=death

wave’s steed or sea steed=ship

sun of the houses=fire

battle icicle=sword

din of spears or spear crash=battle

sky-candle=sun

wound-sea, slaughter-dew, or battle-sweat=blood

breaker of trees=wind

spear of the hair=comb

swan road=river

skull-splitter=axe

weather of weapons=war

brow-stars=eyes

sea-garment=sail

winter garment=snow

seabird’s bath=sea

Here are few of my own banal kennings:

hair-divider=comb

time machine=clock

word-maker=pen

noise-maker=mouth

If I come up with some others I’ll let you know.

I tried.

NO MORE FALLON BUT A FELON IS KNOCKING AGAIN AT THE GATES OF HELL

I expect that there will be no war (with Iran), and that is what we ought to be working for. We ought to try to do our utmost to create different conditions.
Admiral William J. Fallon



Just as Fallon took over Centcom last spring, the White House was putting itself on a war footing with Iran. Almost instantly, Fallon began to calmly push back against what he saw as an ill-advised action. Over the course of 2007, Fallon's statements in the press grew increasingly dismissive of the possibility of war, creating serious friction with the White House.
Last December, when the National Intelligence Estimate downgraded the immediate nuclear threat from Iran, it seemed as if Fallon's caution was justified. But still, well-placed observers now say that it will come as no surprise if Fallon is relieved of his command before his time is up next spring, maybe as early as this summer, in favor of a commander the White House considers to be more pliable. If that were to happen, it may well mean that the president and vice-president intend to take military action against Iran before the end of this year and don't want a commander standing in their way.
Thomas P.M. Barnett
[Former Naval War College professor]





Prosecute a politican and a prostitute to take attention away from a war with...
Iran!

That's the ticket.

Shakespeare's pen would have a field day with the intrigues and machinations of the
Gray
House
of
Bush.

An iron curtain of censorship prevents the public from knowing all of this.

I suppose it has always been the case in any country's central government.

Whether it be England, Spain, France, Germany, Russia etc.

The geopolitical chess boards have players and moves that do not see the light of day in sound-proof basements of secrecy.

I do not wish for there to be any more war.

I believe that diplomacy would achieve much more than more war would.

Fallon, who did not want to talk about war with Iran, nor be a part of its planning, did not just leave gently into the night.

Bush's Neo Con masters made the Decider
GET
RID
OF
Fallon.

(Or maybe it is now only Bush's own brain...
but the "MASTERS" are pleased nonetheless)


No wussies!

No pacifists!

ONLY FIGHTERS TO THE DEATH FOR THE STATE'S CORPORATE MASTERS!

GOTTA
GIVE
THE OWNERS
OF
AMERICA
AND
ISRAEL
ANOTHER
HORSE
SHOT
IN THE ARM!

Israel's airstrike deep in Syria last October was reported to have targeted a nuclear-related facility, but details have remained sketchy and some experts have been skeptical that Syria had a covert nuclear program. An alternative scenario floating in Israel and Lebanon is that the real purpose of the strike was to force Syria to switch on the targeting electronics for newly received Russian anti-aircraft defenses. The location of the strike is seen as on a likely flight path to Iran (also crossing the friendly Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq), and knowing the electronic signatures of the defensive systems is necessary to reduce the risks for warplanes heading to targets in Iran.
Two U.S. warships took up positions off Lebanon earlier this month, replacing the USS Cole. The deployment was said to signal U.S. concern over the political stalemate in Lebanon and the influence of Syria in that country. But the United States also would want its warships in the eastern Mediterranean in the event of military action against Iran to keep Iranian ally Syria in check and to help provide air cover to Israel against Iranian missile reprisals. One of the newly deployed ships, the USS Ross, is an Aegis guided missile destroyer, a top system for defense against air attacks.
["From Are We Closer to War?" By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, March 12, 2008]



P.S.
Today I received James Thurber's The Last Flower
A Parable in Pictures.
On the bottom of the front cover are these words:
"A melancholy argument against annihilation. The Last Flower is on the short list of books worth clutching to your chest as the world is destroyed."
---David Rees, author of Get Your War On


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

COGITATIONS

When there is not much of interest on the Net, I start thinking about what to write about.

George W. Bush is always somewhere among cogitations within my think box.

I was wondering today how to write about Bush, Wars and Whores.

I know the juxtaposition of these words is not a kind one, but the Long War Decider has done some unkindly things.

Lately, though, if he's not dancing like a fool, he's telling jokes (or attempting to) about the fallen minions of his mendacious and monstrous administration.

A man who visited a prostitute does not seem as uncivil or evil as a man who defiled and deserted the Constitution of the United States.

That Goddamned piece of paper (the Decider's words) that is a thorn in Bush's unitary craw that he signs away with his signing statements.

The world's future generations will be shocked and in awe at how little was done by Americans to expel a president who repeatedly lied and laughed at them.

DREAMING

Last night I dreamed all night that I was moving to David Letterman's house in New York.
I have no idea why.
I have no idea where Mr. Letterman's house is, nor what it looks like.
But my dream didn't seem to care.
When I am dreaming, if I get up to go the bathroom or the kitchen, and then go back to sleep, I don't usually step back into the same dream.
I never did make it to Mr. Letterman's house, and maybe that is why the dream continued after each bathroom or kitchen "break".
Dreaming is a very strange phenomenon.
I'll let everyone know if tonight's or tomorrow's dream is me still trying to get to David Letterman's house.
My bags are packed just in case.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

A PRESIDENT WHO HAS GONE OVERBOARD

GWB: You see, I like waterboarding. I used to ski on my board every summer. It's fun and relaxing to waterboard.
REPORTER: But Mr. President, what about torture?
GWB: Didn't need no torch. I did my waterboarding during the day.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

Published: March 9, 2008
New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Saturday further cemented his legacy of fighting for strong executive powers, using his veto to shut down a Congressional effort to limit the Central Intelligence Agency’s latitude to subject terrorism suspects to harsh interrogation techniques.

The Senate’s majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said Mr. Bush disregarded the advice of military commanders, including Gen. David H. Petraeus, who argued that the military’s interrogation techniques were effective and that the use of any others could create risks for any future American prisoners of war.

“He has rejected the Army field manual’s recognition that such horrific tactics elicit unreliable information, put U.S. troops at risk and undermine our counterinsurgency efforts,” Mr. Reid said in a statement. Democrats vowed to raise the matter again.

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has been an outspoken opponent of torture, often referring to his own experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In this case he supported the administration’s position, arguing as Mr. Bush did Saturday that the legislation would have limited the C.I.A.’s ability to gather intelligence.

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, disputed that assertion on Saturday. “As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I have heard nothing to suggest that information obtained from enhanced interrogation techniques has prevented an imminent terrorist attack,” he said in a statement.

Representative Bill Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts, has been holding hearings on the administration’s negotiations with Iraq over the legal status of American troops in Iraq beyond Mr. Bush’s presidency. He said the administration had rebuffed demands to bring any agreement to Congress for approval, and had largely succeeded.

“They’re excellent at manipulating the arguments so that if Congress should assert itself, members expose themselves to charges of being soft, not tough enough on terrorism,” he said. “My view is history is going to judge us all.”

READING AND DANCING BETWEEN THE LINES

THE PRESIDENT:

Thank you all. Thank you for the warm welcome. Thanks for coming. It's my honor to be here. I'm proud to address the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference. (Applause.) Thankfully, you only left it for five words. (Laughter.) I appreciate your commitment to renewable energy. I probably didn't help today when I rode over in a 20-car motorcade.

[OR WHEN I RODE ROUGH-SHOD OVER THE CONSTITUTION TO BURN THREE-TRILLION DOLLARS IN IRAQ]

(Laughter.)

I hope you understand that you're pioneers on the frontiers of change.

[I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND THAT I WAS A PIONEER ON THE FRONTIERS OF DICTATORSHIP]

Mike Eckhart is the President of the American Council on Renewable Energy -- he and I went to Harvard together...I can assure you that when we were at Harvard Business School together he never envisioned that we would be in our respective positions, like we are today. As a matter of fact, I know in 1975 he never even thought about the word "renewable fuel," [OR RENEWABLE FOOL] much less "President George W. Bush."

(Laughter.)

...Listen, let me start first by telling you that America has got to change its habits.

[BUT DON'T LOOK AT ME FOR AN EXAMPLE, BECAUSE I'LL NEVER CHANGE MY HABITS]

We've got to get off oil.

[BUT WE WON'T GET OFF OF THE OIL IN IRAQ]

We want there to be general prosperity.

[MAYBE WHEN THERE'S A NEW PRESIDENT]

The dependency upon oil also puts us at the mercy of terrorists.

[NOT AT THE MERCY OF THOSE FILTHY RICH OIL SHEIKH BUDDIES THAT I HOLD HANDS WITH]

If there's tight supply and demand, all it requires is one terrorist disruption of oil and that price goes even higher.

[OR A DISRUPTION SUCH AS MY INVASION OF IRAQ, AND THE PRICE OF OIL GOES OVER $100 A BARREL]

It's in our interests to end our dependency on oil because it -- that dependency presents a challenge to our national security. In 1985, 20 percent of America's oil came from abroad. Today that number is nearly 60 percent.

[YOU MIGHT ASK WHY I'VE WAITED ALMOST EIGHT YEARS TO TELL YOU THIS. ASK DICK CHENEY…EXXON, HALLIBURTON AND OTHERS]

Now, all the countries we import from are friendly, stable countries

[LIKE VENEZUELA AND IRAQ?]; but some countries we get oil from don't particularly like us. They don't like the form of government that we embrace.

[JUST LIKE MANY AMERICANS DON'T LIKE THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT THAT I'VE EMBRACED]

And finally, our dependence on fossil fuels like oil presents a challenge to our environment. When we burn fossil fuels we release greenhouse gases. The concentration of greenhouse gases has increased substantially.

[AS HAVE THE DEFICITS]

I've come today to tell you that America is the kind of country that when they see a problem, we address it head-on

[JUST LIKE IN THAT HEAD-ON T.V. COMMERCIAL].

I've set a great goal for our country, and that is to reduce our dependence on oil by investing in technologies that will produce abundant supplies of clean and renewable energy, and at the same time show the world that we're good stewards of the environment.

[BUT TALKING ABOUT GOALS AND SETTING GOALS IS EASY...ESPECIALLY FOR ME SINCE I'M "OUT OF HERE" IN A FEW HUNDRED MORE DAYS]

Now, look, I understand stereotypes are hard to defeat.

[LIKE THOSE STEREOTYPES OF WMDS AND AL-QAEDA BEING IN IRAQ]

People get an image planted in their head, and sometimes it causes them not to listen to the facts

[I'VE HAD THIS PROBLEM DURING MY ENTIRE PRESIDENCY].

But America is in the lead when it comes to energy independence

[HEY SPEECH WRITERS...DIDN'T YOU JUST TELL ME TO SAY THAT AMERICA WAS TOO DEPENDENT ON OIL?]

We're in the lead when it comes to new technologies.

[DIDN’T WE TAKE THE LEAD OUT OF GASOLINE?]

We're in the lead when it comes to global climate change -- and we'll stay that way.

(Applause.)

[WHAT THE HELL...ARE MY SPEECH WRITERS TAKING DRUGS OR WHAT? AREN'T WE SUPPOSED TO BE TRYING TO DECREASE GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE?]

Overall, over the past seven years -- or since I've been the President

[SEE, I CAN COUNT TO SEVEN],

the federal government spent more than $12 billion to research, develop and promote alternative energy sources.

[BIG DEAL! THAT'S HOW MUCH I SPEND EACH MONTH IN IRAQ]

Our strategy is twofold: One, we're going to change the way we drive our cars

[WE’LL DRIVE OUR CARS WHILE NOT USING OUR CELL PHONES---WE’LL DRIVE OUR CARS WITHOUT SO MUCH ROAD RAGE]; and two, we'll change the way we power our businesses and homes. In other words, the two most vulnerable areas to economic disruption happens to be automobile use and electric power.

[BUT DON'T STOP DRIVING YOUR AUTOMOBILES TO SHOP AT WALMART OR TURN OFF YOUR T.V. SETS JUST YET]

This administration is a strong supporter of hydrogen

[AND PLAIN OLD HOT AIR].

We spent about $1.2 billion in research and development to bring vehicles running on hydrogen to the market. A lot of people don't even know what I'm talking about when I'm talking about hydrogen .

[BUT IF YOU ADD 2 AND 0 YOU'LL GET WATER]

I was interested to see that Virgin Atlantic flew a 747 from London's Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam, fueled partly by coconuts and Brazilian babassu nuts. I've never seen a babassu nut, but it's amazing that it helped power an airplane the size of a 747.

[AND I BET THAT VIRGIN WAS PRETTY AMAZING TOO]

(Applause.)

You know, there's a lot of politicians who just talk. I hope when history is written of this administration, we not only talked, we actually did positive things and constructive things

[LIKE DOUBLING THE NATIONAL DEBT...INVADING A COUNTRY WHO DID NOT HARM US…MAKING BIG BROTHER A REALITY.]

Leave with one thing in mind: The United States is committed [AND I PROBABLY SHOULD BE],
and we're firm in our commitments, to deal with energy problems and to deal with global climate change.

[SO DEAL WITH IT!]

And it's been my honor to be with you today.

May God bless you. (Applause.)

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

GLEAM OF THE GODS

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom or philosophy.Beethoven

But prodigies sent by Heaven soon came to disturb the tyrant’s repose.
Thomas Keightley

He was a Titan, wrestling with the Gods.
Richard Wagner on Beethoven

The proofs that God does not exist are very strong, but in lots of people they are not as strong as the feeling that He does.John Steinbeck

I do not concern myself with gods and spirits either good or evil nor do I serve any.
Lao Tzu

Cease to think that the decrees of the gods can be changed by prayers.

Virgil

The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.

Socrates

It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.

H. L. Mencken



When I hear the magnificent (booming or soft) sounds of Beethoven I think, "Some men must have been sent here by God or gods."
Although I am not a devout church-going person, I try to practice and apply spiritual ideas.
I try.

I’m not a religious person.
I’m not one who follows or practices a religion.
I have attempted to learn and know what is spiritual.
Not in any esoteric, dogmatic, or bombastic sense.

I also appreciate beauty whether it is music, writing or art.
I do not go out of my way to tell others about this appreciation.

I do not have any God or gods hanging on my sleeves.
Although I consider many parts of the Bible to be "God-inspired", I do not have any proof, nor can I really say what I mean by “God-inspired”.

Maybe I don’t need to.
Maybe “God-inspired” is a self-evident term that speaks well enough for itself (except for those dissecting scientists and philosophers).

Define your terms!
But these are only words.
But, then, what else is there?

Of course there is architecture, music, mathematics and painting (and the arts).

After almost five wasteful years of lies and war...war…war…
And lies…lies…and more lies…
And thousands and thousands and thousands of corpses, is it any wonder that Americans want to hear something inspiring for a change…something meaningful…some things that are…
Good

True

and
Beautiful.

Now for some more Beethoven.

P.S.
Here is a poem by D.H. Lawrence that spells out what I have tried to express above.

Worship

All men are worshippers
unless they have fallen, and become robots.

All men worship the wonder of life
until they collapse into egotism, the mechanical, self-centered system
of the robot.

But even in pristine men, there is the difference:
Some men can see life clean and flickering all around,
and some can only see what they are shown.

Some men look straight into the eyes of the gods
and some men can see no gods, they only know
the gods are there because of the gleam on the faces of the men
who see.

Most men, even unfallen, can only live
by the transmitted gleam from the faces of vivider men
who look into the eyes of the gods.
and worship is the joy of the gleam from the eyes of the gods,
and the robot is denial of the same,
even the denial that there is any gleam

 

 

***

 



I am adding this poem by Stephen Crane.  Today is November 21, 2012.

A spirit sped

by Stephen Crane

A spirit sped
Through spaces of night;
And as he sped, he called,
"God! God!"
He went through valleys
Of black death-slime,
Ever calling,
"God! God!"
Their echoes
From crevice and cavern
Mocked him:
"God! God! God!"
Fleetly into the plains of space
He went, ever calling,
"God! God!"
Eventually, then, he screamed,
Mad in denial,
"Ah, there is no God!"
A swift hand,
A sword from the sky,
Smote him,
And he was dead

 

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

A WAR HORSE AN IDEALIST AND HILLARY CLINTON

Hillary Clinton is becoming much like her husband:
She is becoming the "comeback" girl.

Obama still has more delegates.
But her wins in Ohio and New York have placed Mrs. Clinton back into the saddle.
The ensuing months will probably pave the path for a battle royal and not a photo finish.

But politics is like the weather, and not completely accurate in its forecast.

Obama's smooth persona and smooth-talking may not be as convincing as Mrs. Clinton's louder and more strident voice.

Americans in general, however, are hedging their hopes and bets on a candidate who will ease the pains of the current $3,000,000,000,000 war economy.
(Thank you George W. Bush...for everything...and your nothingness.)

War economy?
That's an oxymoron.

John McCain is now riding in the war chariot, enshrouded in the disgraceful mantle of George W. Bush, maintaining a strong grip on the Decider's battle ax and his pathetic half-decade old mantra to achieve Victory in Iraq.

McCain will not win the hearts, minds or pocketbooks of the American electorate.

This leaves McCain's chance to win with faulty electronic voting machines, an obeisant U.S. Supreme Court, or some other October surprise before the general election in November.

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

Q & A

How can you tell if you’re suffering from primary election fatigue?

Did you say primary erection fatigue?

No, I suppose you didn't.

I am not really that fatigued by the primary "parade".

In fact, I am happy that I was able to be exposed (no pun intended) so much to all of the candidates.

Some might complain that all of these debates, and hearing so much from the candidates, etc., is overkill and unnecessary. I

disagree.

This is democracy at its best.

If people can't tolerate this, then something is wrong with their tolerance for a maximum amount of debate and self-expression by those who want to, as the cliche goes, be in the most powerful position on the planet.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

THEME SONGS

What theme song would you suggest for any of the remaining presidential candidates?

Rock, Rock

( Barack)

Around the Clock for Obama.

I Am Woman

for Clinton.

You Ain’t Nothing But An (Old) Hound Dog

for McCain.

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

WAR DOESN'T MAKE SENSE (CENTS) FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE

War produces death.
Peace produces life.
War is of the Old Testament.
Peace is of the New Testament.
War is not Christ-(Muhammad?)like.
Peace is.
Wars are defended in God's name.
Is Peace ever defended in God's name?
Why war?
Why not peace?
The money spent on war could be spent on social needs.
Such peace-spending would then be called liberal, socialist, pork-barrel, etc.
Instead of producing corpses, it would produce jobs, new schools, new roads etc.
The trillion-dollar war could pay for a trillion-dollar peace.
Instead of invading countries that have not harmed America, we could invade communities that are harmed or doing harm to themselves or to each other.
Which is better for the economy?
War or Peace?
Bullets
Or
Bread
And
Butter?
Don't ask a terrorist.



IT'S ABOUT PEACE AND RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

MORE (ON) BUSH: A DUMMY WHO GETS DUMBER AND DUMBER

I haven't made UP the following conversation.

It really is the Long War President speaking.

The Decider is once again exposing to the world the contents of his mind.

The last sentence will blow your mind.

George W. Bush: And as people are now beginning to see, Iraq is changing, democracy is beginning to tak[e] hold. And I'm convinced 50 years from now people look back and say thank God there was those who were willing to sacrifice.

Ann Curry: But you're saying you're going to have to carry that burden... Some Americans believe that they feel they're carrying the burden because of this economy.

They say -- they say they're suffering because of this.

George W. Bush: I don't agree with that.

Ann Curry: You don't agree with that? Has nothing do with the economy, the war? The spending on the war?

George W. Bush: I don't think so. I think actually, the spending on the war might help with jobs.

Ann Curry: Oh, yeah?

George W. Bush: Yeah, because we're buying equipment, and people are working. I think this economy is down because we built too many houses.

[From

NBC's The Today Show

February 18, 2008]

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

McCain, who voted to go into Iraq and said it was "important" to do so, does not seem to have noticed that the price tag for it and Afghanistan is rapidly rising to $3 trillion to $5 trillion over the long term, or $10,000 for each man, woman and child in America. For a family of four, that is $40,000 or a whole year's salary that George W. Bush has stolen from us and given to his friends at Halliburton, Hunt Oil, Exxon Mobile, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Electric, etc., etc., etc. (See Tom Engelhardt on this and other morsels in Bush's Mulligatawny Soup of a war). Not to mention the nearly 4,000 killed in action and the thousands seriously wounded, with brain trauma, spinal injuries, confined to wheel chairs or forever impaired, who will need to be taken care of the rest of their lives (and guess to which address the bill will come-- not Crawford, Texas.) Is the war really unrelated to the growing bad times in the US economy?

FROM

Informed Comment

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

Friday, February 29, 2008

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY

I have always enjoyed listening to Dick Cavett and William F. Buckley speak.

I first wrote "enjoyed watching", but then I remembered just how painful it was, sometimes, to watch Mr. Buckley speak when he got bug-eyed and writhed his tongue like some hungry serpent.

But, then, that was what fascinated me.

Also, William F. Buckley spoke about ordinary matters in extraordinary ways.

I am trying to think of the right words to describe his speaking style.

He decorated ideas not just with a white and chocolate (or whatever flavor you choose) frosting, but he embellished them with colorful and imaginative verbal sprinkles that astonished mind and imagination.

I liked how he said something more than what he said.

Sometimes I said to myself,

"I don't know what the hell he just said, but it sure sounded good."

Then there were those captivating pauses and stutters of Mr. Buckley's which were just as fascinating as his words and facial gesticulations.

One year I subscribed to The National Review the same year that I subscribed to In These Times and, if I recall correctly, The New Yorker and The Nation, and a few others.

It was this same year that I was mailed ("out of the blue") information by the John Birch Society.

We have lost some very good wordsmiths.

Mailer.

Vonnegut.

And now

William F. Buckley.

May they continue their colorful conversations wherever they find themselves.

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!