future wine 

mayhem

Horrid times, indeed. I certainly feel for sensitive, decent folks trying to remain sane while living in the States. But hell, these times also dish up a steady diet of hilarious news bits - from virtually anything that flounders out of Bush's mouth to any and all attempts by the "Krish-chun" right to sell itself as "moral".
In any case, this one from today's NY Times was particularly worth a yelp of laughter:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation on Friday to outlaw the sale to teenagers of electronic games featuring reckless mayhem and explicit sexuality."

"Reckless mayhem and explict sexuality". Jeez. As opposed to "thoughtful", "cautious" or "prudent" mayhem.

Mayhem. Good word.

Gotta keep the kids away from reckless mayhem...and, "Hey, c'mon!"...god knows from explicit sexuality...

Meanwhile, no problem having the majority support the wholesale ignoring of the Constitution, or becomming inured to the systematic use of torture by those acting on their behalf (you know...the "moral" ones).

The cited video games are creepy, but not due to their reckless mayhem or explicit sexuality (you can find that at almost any given moment at some mass-culture feeding point). It's that they present an asshole's view of the world...leading one to the question - why are they so popular? What has occured in cultural evolution to bring us to this point? Why do so many people, young and old, get such a thrill from virtually assuming the role of fucked up shitheads?

How many billions do they say will be directed at rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf coast? Eighty-something billion dollars. Huh? Just whereinhell do they come up with that wealth? Sure as shit not from the bulging federal treasury...which is basically imploding into a netherworld of future financial disaster.
So what do we see right away? Cozy-assed corporate shits belonging to the same rancid mafia cashing in immediately on this newly minted wealth. Did I hear the name Halliburton? Who's in charge of this "great effort" from the White House?...none other than everyone's favorite christofascist faker Rove! Warms the heart.
So we have a new New Deal for the South, with money popped into existence suddenly...most or all of which will fall into the greasy hands of greedfilled wretches...most or all of which will, of course, be financed not by U.S. corporate (or individual) taxes, but by China and other governments trying to keep the incredible shrinking dollar from breaking the levies of the international financial system (and that lovely American market from morphing into depression nothingness)...all of which, supposedly, must be paid back (will American troops be called out to quell the next Tiannamin Square uprising?).
Oh, right. Let us not forget that much of the relief money from contributions goes into a fund highlighted by Pat Robertson's "charity" (which channels half of the cash back into its fascist tv network). Good ol' "let's kill president Chavez" Pat...this, while Chavez himself offers more in material aid than most of the supposed "Christian" groups combined...

Finally, we're treated to the speculator spectacle...armies of shitheads (neo-carpetbaggers?) scouting out flooded properties for cheap deals...ah, what a wonderful New Orleans shall rise from the muck! With the speculators in the lead!

Fucking hell!
¡Hay que joderse!

thinking... 

what the fuck?

Might it be possible for thinking people to still argue for "free-market" politics (what the Europeans call "neo-liberalism"? This when the generalized privatization of everything in the U.S. economy has, of course, led to ever-more-Brazil-like contrasts in wealth/poverty, one of the industrial world's highest crime and encarcelation rates, a level of national debt that dwarfs that of Mexico, Brazil and Argentina before their respective crises (ironically, it's China that's keeping the U.S. economy afloat, by purchasing billions of dollars in U.S. bonds...will China act like the IMF and World Bank, sternly insisting that north Americans "tighten their belts" and start functioning with fiscal responsiblity? I doubt it).

And now this spectacle...an entire week goes by with hundreds of thousands of people abandoned to their fate, without food or other basics, with no escape out...and not enough public resources to mobilize. Not enough public buses to get people out...but of course, no need whatsoever for Greyhound or Continental to mobilize. Why should they? They might lose money. So the world looks aghast at the U.S., with every day bringing another reason to forget the United States as any kind of reference for decency or even practicality. Even Chavez is on the tube, talking about helping out the new wretched of the earth...in the States. How it is that Bush and his supporters can look themselves in the mirror, I do not know. As Maureen Dowd put it today - the United States of Shame.

"Conservatives"?

From the time of the "Reagan Revolution", I've always marvelled at how this political movement could get away with labelling itself "conservative", or "patriotic", while deriding anything remotely progressive in the U.S. as "anti-American". Check this out. "They will pass godly legislation, defying Supreme Court rulings on the separation of church and state... We're going to force a constitutional crisis... If necessary," he said, "we will secede from the union." This from a group of crazed Cristofascists planning on taking things into their own hands, as it were. It's worth posting the whole story here (from the L.A. Times, Sunday, 28 August).

A group of believers wants to establish Scriptures-based government one city and county at a time.

Greenville, SC - It began, as many road trips do, with a stop at Wal-Mart to buy a portable DVD player.

But Mario DiMartino was planning more than a weekend getaway. He, his wife and three children were embarking on a pilgrimage to South Carolina.

"I want to migrate and claim the gold of the Lord," said the 38-year-old oil company executive from Pennsylvania. "I want to replicate the statutes and the mores and the scriptures that the God of the Old Testament espoused to the world."

DiMartino, who drove here recently to look for a new home, is a member of Christian Exodus, a movement of politically active believers who hope to establish a government based upon Christian principles.

At a time when evangelicals are exerting influence on the national political stage - having helped secure President Bush's reelection - Christian Exodus believes that people of faith have failed to assert their moral agenda: Abortion is legal. School prayer is banned. There are limits on public displays of the Ten Commandments. Gays and lesbians can marry in Massachusetts.

Christian Exodus activists plan to take control of sheriff's offices, city councils and school boards. Eventually, they say, they will control South Carolina. They will pass godly legislation, defying Supreme Court rulings on the separation of church and state.

"We're going to force a constitutional crisis," said Cory Burnell, 29, an investment advisor who founded the group in November 2003.

"If necessary," he said, "we will secede from the union."

Burnell has not moved to South Carolina himself - he promised his wife that they would stay in Valley Springs, Calif., until the end of next year - but believes that his 950 supporters will rally to the cause. Five families have moved so far.

Burnell said his inspiration came from the Free State Project, which in October 2003 appealed to libertarians to move to New Hampshire for limited government intervention, lower taxes and greater individual rights. By 2006, organizers had hoped to have 20,000 people committed to relocating to New Hampshire; so far, 6,600 have said they intended to make the move, and only 100 have done so.

Christian Exodus, Burnell predicted, will be more successful.

"There are more Christians than libertarians," he said.

After scrutinizing electoral records, demographic trends and property prices, Christian Exodus members identified two upstate South Carolina counties - they will not officially say which ones - as prime for a conservative takeover. By September 2006, Burnell hopes to have 2,000 activists in one county and 500 in the other.

Frank and Tammy Janoski have settled into a five-bedroom house with white vinyl siding in a new subdivision in rural Spartanburg County.

"This is where God wants us to be," he said.

Janoski, 38, a self-employed computer engineer, had been contemplating moving from his deadline-oriented lifestyle in Bethlehem, Pa., to a more conservative region with cheaper housing and lower taxes when a church friend handed him a Christian Exodus flier.

"What attracted me to the movement was the idea of calling back the country to a righteous standard," he said.

His first six months in South Carolina have been idyllic, Janoski said. Not only do his neighbors wave as they pass by, but they also share most of his conservative Christian beliefs.

"If you're going to secede, this is the place to do it," he said. "A lot of the locals have that spirit."

Although Christian Exodus members are confident that they can capitalize on evangelical disillusionment with the Republican Party, local observers are skeptical.

James Guth, a professor at Furman University in Greenville who studies the influence of religion on politics, does not think that Christian Exodus will be successful beyond a county level.

"South Carolina is a state that is dominated by Republicans," he said. "Although there are people on the far right edge of the Republican Party … in general, the population is a big fan of Bush."

Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, upstate South Carolina is the most conservative region of a conservative state: Bush won 58% of the South Carolina vote in 2004, and Greenville is home to Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian college that until recently had banned interracial dating.

Cleatus Blackmon, treasurer and director of missions at the Greer Baptist Assn., which oversees 39 Baptist churches in Janoski's town, doubts that Christian Exodus' focus on taking over government bodies will appeal to the majority of the region's Christians.

"You don't find the word 'control' in the scriptures," he said. "The basic mission of the church is to proclaim God's redeeming love through the example of Jesus Christ."

But Christian Exodus activists insist that they will forge ahead, even if they end up polarizing the Christian community.

"We want to separate the wheat from the chaff," DiMartino said. "There's a lot of deception in the church. If the Republican Party says something, a lot of churches say it's gospel."

Despite its cynicism about the Republican Party, Christian Exodus plans to use the party's popularity to its advantage. Rather than running for office themselves, Christian Exodus activists hope to influence which Republican candidates win local primaries.

"All we have to do is put our guy on the ballot with an 'R' sign," Burnell said. "It could be a corpse and they'll vote for him."

Local Republicans, however, point out that they would never sit idly by while Christian Exodus took over.

"He talks about 2,000 activists, but I can easily get 4,000 activists," said Bob Taylor, a Republican Greenville County councilman and a dean at Bob Jones University. "There's incredible dedication to the [Republican] cause."

While many South Carolinians may oppose abortion and gay marriage, Taylor said, few would support secession.

But DiMartino is not worried about the naysayers.

When he explained Christian Exodus to the man who sold him his home in Pickens County, he said, the salesman gave him a high-five. DiMartino looks forward to living alongside Christians who want to put local government back in the hands of what, he believes, America was really founded for.

"Whether it flies or not," he said, "is really in the Lord's hands."

Now really, with "conservatives" like these, who needs radicals?

Meanwhile, for a bit of levity, check out this link: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-dinosaurs27aug27,1,7272573.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

silly shitheads and perfect scripts

I've been telling people for a while now that the next big target for the American military/industrial complex (read: Halliburton, et. al)/ Cristofascist mafia would be Chavez and Venezuela. It's just too perfect: a strong and popular political leader dedicated to uniting Latin America, with relatively progressive economic and social tendencies, leading a country full of oil, a friend of Castro...mixed with the situation in neighbouring Colombia (devil drugs, evil commie revolutionaries in the mountains allied with the devil drug dealers, etc.)...it simply seemed to be a script pre-written for the bastards to convince 'mercuns' of the drug/commie/oil danger to the south...the only thing missing was the radical Islam terrorist link...Send in the Marines, dammit!!...and what a great way to remove attention from Iraq...slowly remove all troops, keeping only a small contingent to help the private armies (Halliburton, et. al.) prote ct the oil fields...It would work perfectly! Evil drug-running commies led by a dark-skinned Castro lover...people (and the mainstream media) would forget about Iraq within days...just in time, perhaps for the mid-term elections (perhaps Rove should moonlight as a writer of international intrigue novels)...
So, in the end, the words of this silly shithead Robertson did not surprise me...and when I went to his website, the final ingredient was there!...evil drug-running commies ALLIED WITH ISLAMIC RADICAL TERRORISTS!. Lions and tigers and bears...oh no!!
No thought, of course, is given to the fact that Chavez and his ideals are considered, openly, a much bigger enemy by radical Muslim fundamentalists then the creepy Christian blue meanies who supposedly oppose them. No need for such reflection.

So...how long before the Marines are landing on the shores of Venezuela?

 

The Good and the Bad

History as it unfolds is odd.
A federal judge sends a reporter to jail for not disclosing her source.
Bad.
That reporter is Judith Miller, a NY Times reporter who did as much as anyone to hype the war with faulty reporting. In fact, when the Times "apologized" some time back for their coverage of the lead-up to the Iraq war, they were surely referring to Miller's bad journalism (although it went unsaid).
Good.
It seems quite clear that the source being protected is Karl Rove, one of the most dangerous and evil men ever to roam the halls of the White House. This "patriot" told reporters that a certain U.S. diplomate working overseas was actually a CIA agent. This was the inimitable Karl's way of punishing a dissident among the ranks of chickenhawks leading the Christian soldiers on to war. The federal inquiry is now closer to nailing Rove thanks to the judge's heavy-handed tactics. This horrible character will surely (??) have to resign.
Good.
But...jailing a reporter for not revealing a source?
Clearly bad.

nationalism

If it rides on nationalism...it's shit.

Period.

The Religious

Given their addiction to a mystical explanation for human phenomena, and to a metaphysical basis for morality (effectively blinding them to real-life experience as a moral guide), the religious are capable of all forms of horror…and given their psychological need to reaffirm their self-esteem through the literal “truth” of the particular metaphysical belief structure they choose, the religious are in a perfect position to be manipulated into any sort of crime.

Just look around.

Paul Harvey

This is priceless:

Paul Harvey's Tribute to Slavery, Nukes, Genocide
Hateful rant shows Disney's double standard on speech

7/1/05

Disney/ABC radio personality Paul Harvey, one of the most widely listened to commentators in the United States, presented his listeners on June 23 with an endorsement of genocide and racism that would have been right at home on a white supremacist shortwave broadcast.

Harvey's commentary began by lamenting the decline of American wartime aggression. "We're standing there dying, daring to do nothing decisive because we've declared ourselves to be better than our terrorist enemies--more moral, more civilized," he said. Drawing a contrast with what he cast as the praiseworthy nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, Harvey lamented that "we sent men with rifles into Afghanistan and Iraq and kept our best weapons in their silos"--suggesting that America should have used its nuclear arsenal in its invasions of both countries.

Harvey concluded - "We didn't come this far because we're made of sugar candy. Once upon a time, we elbowed our way onto and across this continent by giving smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans. That was biological warfare. And we used every other weapon we could get our hands on to grab this land from whomever.

"And we grew prosperous. And yes, we greased the skids with the sweat of slaves. So it goes with most great nation-states, which--feeling guilty about their savage pasts--eventually civilize themselves out of business and wind up invaded and ultimately dominated by the lean, hungry up-and-coming who are not made of sugar candy."

Harvey's evident approval of slavery, genocide and nuclear and biological warfare would seem to put him at odds with Disney's family-friendly image. The media conglomerate syndicates Harvey to more than 1,000 radio stations, where he reaches an estimated 18 million listeners. Disney recently signed a 10-year, $100 million contract with the 86-year-old Harvey.

In 2004, Disney forbid its Miramax subsidiary to distribute Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11, even though Miramax was the principal investor in the film. A Disney executive told the New York Times (5/5/04) that it was declining to distribute the film because, in the paper's words, "Disney caters to families of all political stripes and believes Mr. Moore's film...could alienate many."

One wonders whether Disney executives are worried about alienating families who oppose slavery, nuclear war and Native American genocide...

-from FAIR: http://www.fair.org/index.php

That last part makes for lovely irony.

I grew up hearing that silly man's voice on the radio. Nice, father-knows-best, homey kind of fascist. As Dmitri says of his terrible father in The Brothers Karamazov: "Why must such men exist??"

a thing of beauty and a joy forever 

idiots

Federal agents are breaking into establishments in San Francisco that provide marijuana to patients for medical use. People are arrested for using this plant to alleviate pain and suffering.
Unfuckingbelievable.
This kind of Puritan sickness is one of the most disgraceful manifestations of all the human pathologies. A plant grows from the ground. You pick it, dry it and smoke it. It makes many people feel good. Gives pleasure. It need not be processed or changed. Moreover, it lessens the suffering of the ill.
Yet the fucking assholes outlaw it. They send their creeps to bully and arrest people. Lives are destroyed. All in the cause of the squirmy fear, insecurity and nastiness that lurk behind Puritanism.

It's all twisted and evil. Yet millions are convinced that this is normal. That there is something so wrong and dangerous about this plant that it must be outlawed. Poor, ignorant bastards. Fattening themselves with corporate processed cheesewhip crap and mucking up their minds with religious claptrap, marching to the beat of the military drum and flying their ugly (not to be burnt!) flag.

¡Hay que joderse!

nice smoke 

hilarious

Among the long list of socio-political uglies (such as the sudden hysterical concern with drunk driving) that sprang up like so much fungus during the Reagan years (and used by that administration and its successors to deflect working Americans' attention from the fact that they were being economically screwed), the anti-smoking movement was in many ways the most remarkable. Obviously, it has always been a good idea to educate people of the health hazards, and to do what is possible to raise smokers' awareness of how their practice can annoy others. Yet it seems clear that anti-tobacco mania has always been rooted more in puritanism than in health concerns. While Americans have supported ever stronger anti-smoking laws, they have mostly watched complacently as the same law makers eviscerated other kinds of environmental legislation aimed at industrial activity. It's ok if we poison ourselves through our productive activites, or our transportation needs, but not ok if we do so with tobacco. Why? Well, tobacco is, in the end, a pleasure...a vice. Obviously much worse from the perspective of the prevailing "Protestant ethic".
In any case, the anti-tobacco movement has come a long way, and I've always been amazed that erstwhile industry-friendly politicians seemed, for a change, to stick to their principles while sticking it to the big tobacco companies. Amazing, thought I, that Jesse Helms and other right-wing corporate whores would let the government take so much money from their cronies in one of the country's biggest industries...

...Well, as we saw this week, there was no need to ba amazed. In more obvious political maneuvering, Big Tobacco's penalty was cut from 130 billion dollars to 10 billion. Huh? 120 billion dollars that those folks can keep. Logical. Indeed. Jesse, glad you're still around.

I have to say that although I'm no supporter of the big tobacco companies, I have never felt comfortable with the notion of "blaming" them for those people who smoked their way into serious health problems. Anyone who has ever inhaled tobacco smoke would have to be a complete idiot not to realize that damage was being done to the body. The notion that the tobacco companies fooled people into smoking serves to remove all individual responsibility from the individuals themselves. Problematic. In line with the "always look for a bad guy to blame" syndrome that infects the American soul. People are, for the most part, not innocent morons. They are fully capable moral agents capable of making decisions.

In any case, if those presumed 130 billion (arrived at after five years of legal struggle) were to have been plowed into a fund for public health, that would have been fine. But who are we kidding? The main point here is the utter consistency of class-interest over the public good revealed time and again by those currently in power...

...and they were voted in by those espousing "moral values". It's hilarious.

2000 year old olive tree in Almeria 

overwhelming evidence

I can't resist quoting a question posed by Steve Weissman last week:

"What if rational thought misses the cosmic plot? What if our prayerful president, his oil-soaked pre-emptive wars, and his amen chorus of religious reactionaries have come together to do the devil's work? What if Satan - and not just the demonic Dick Cheney - now drives the global train wreck?

For many believers, the evidence seems overwhelming."

The world turned upside down? Perhaps. Or is there something implicitly inverse about the Christian message?

arde

It's old and continual news in the States - how the right uses homofobia (hatred, fear, insecurity and a host of other pathologies) to win elections. No one can doubt the sheer evil political genius of Rove and his minions in placing anti-gay marriage referendums in important states last November (of course, we cannot just put the blame on the Roves of the world...or the Goebbels of the world, for that matter - in the end, those were individual citizens who were spurred on to go out to the polls and vote for inept, corrupt creeps - all out of their squeemish, pathological hatred of how some folks care to love). Here in Spain the issue is still hot. The somewhat progressive PSOE government passed a new law legalizing same-sex marriage some time back, and the current opposition party (Partido Popular), surely taking a cue from some creepy Washington political consultancy, has recently been moving their base with homofobia. They managed to bring tens of thousands into the streets of Madrid last week, all in "defence of the sacred institution of marriage". Makes one sick. All of this, of course, with the active participation of the Catholic church - as always right there on the vanguard of political nastiness. There is no real p0litical logic, of course. The Church has never accepted civil marriages itself, and the new law only applies to State-recognition of same-sex unions. So, one might ask, what in hell are they doing getting involved in criticizing something they already reject for heterosexual couples?
Nothing. I'm sure that none of them could give a flying fuck. Neither in the gilded offices of the Vatican or their affiliates in Spain or elsewhere. Nor do those cynical politicians using this issue to retain or regain power give a goddamn whether two men or two women can have their union legally recognized. They simply know that it's a good way to bring out their sordid base - that part of the electorate that bases its "moral values" on fear, puritanism, squeamishness, hatred...and above all, hypocricy...
Which once again makes me wonder: why must we continue to show respect for these sky-god movements, while they continue to show complete disrespect for those who do not share in their bizarre metaphysical constructs? For chrissakes, it is really annoying.
An oftheard Spanish anarchist refrain that I really like: La unica iglesia que ilumina es la que arde.

Indeed.

arrogance

Hmmm...so many leaked stories and images of the degradations of war...torture, abuse, inhuman treatment of prisioners...physical and psychological abuse of citizens...a vanquished ex-leader shown in his underwear. Indignities not just for the victims, but, normally, for the perpetrators. One would think that the current U.S. military, and administration, would want to conceal such horrors committed in the name all north American citizens...if only to somehow justify their actions in the name of being the "better", or perhaps more highly "moral" side of the conflict.
But no. These stories and images continue to leak out of the various hell-holes produced by what they call the "war on terror". How is it possible? It is logical to assume that with all their power, technology, and seeming indifference to American Constitutional safeguards, that these people would be able to stop such information from emerging.
Which leads me to believe that it is all quite purposeful.
Purposeful behaviour from people who are not functioning in any classically American-style pragmatic manner, nor ruled by any traditional notions of realpolitique. If it were so, this would provide at least a glimmer of hope, in that the torrent of lies and murderous brutality shown by the U.S. administration would represent nothing more than a greedy oil grab and mega-pork project for the Halliburtons, et. al. That would simply be a classic display of cold-hearted power by mafia types in suits. This has happend before, and it will happen again. In any case, that would call for a more thorough and professional P.R. front. Barbaric practices by U.S. citizens, representing all such citizens, one might think, would needlessly erode the kind of political support needed to maintain this unholy oil/military industry pork soup.

But no. This news and these images continue to emerge. The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that they simply want to scare the shit out of what these crazed fascists believe are "the other"..."the bad guys"...those who don't even value life...
In short, it is a manifestation of the "new crusade" mentality against, for now, the Muslim world.

It would seem that we are not only witnessing a horrid display of greed and evil in the name of "defending" America, with the accompanying creation and exploitation of fear and ignorance, and the resulting attack on the American political system (they call these people "conservatives"!!), but at the same time the perpetrators are quite insane religious fanatics. Not only do they talk this way, but their actions lead to the uncomfortable conclusion that they really believe their own fascist fantasies.

Those who annoy me the most in all this are the spineless yapping chickenhawk "intellectuals" who supported and continue to support carnage and evil in our names. They should know better than to fall into this simplistic "clash of civilizations" formula.

Yet they yap on, in their arrogant way.

Hay que joderse!