Dinosauria, we

 The emphasis on the poem below, the bold font, is mine.  It sums up were we are heading as the distinction of civil society, and the obfuscation of democracy,  becomes more and more a reality.

Dinosauria, We by Charles Bukowski

Born like this
Into this
As the chalk faces smile
As Mrs. Death laughs
As the elevators break
As political landscapes dissolve
As the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree
As the oily fish spit out their oily prey
As the sun is masked
We are
Born like this
Into this
Into these carefully mad wars
Into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
Into bars where people no longer speak to each other
Into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings
Born into this
Into hospitals which are so expensive that it's cheaper to die
Into lawyers who charge so much it's cheaper to plead guilty
Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
Into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes
Born into this
Walking and living through this
Dying because of this
Muted because of this
Castrated
Debauched
Disinherited
Because of this
Fooled by this
Used by this
Pissed on by this
Made crazy and sick by this
Made violent
Made inhuman
By this
The heart is blackened
The fingers reach for the throat
The gun
The knife
The bomb
The fingers reach toward an unresponsive god
The fingers reach for the bottle
The pill
The powder
We are born into this sorrowful deadliness
We are born into a government 60 years in debt
That soon will be unable to even pay the interest on that debt
And the banks will burn
Money will be useless
There will be open and unpunished murder in the streets
It will be guns and roving mobs
Land will be useless
Food will become a diminishing return
Nuclear power will be taken over by the many
Explosions will continually shake the earth
Radiated robot men will stalk each other
The rich and the chosen will watch from space platforms
Dante's Inferno will be made to look like a children's playground
The sun will not be seen and it will always be night
Trees will die
All vegetation will die
Radiated men will eat the flesh of radiated men
The sea will be poisoned
The lakes and rivers will vanish
Rain will be the new gold
The rotting bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark wind
The last few survivors will be overtaken by new and hideous diseases
And the space platforms will be destroyed by attrition
The petering out of supplies
The natural effect of general decay
And there will be the most beautiful silence never heard
Born out of that.
The sun still hidden there
Awaiting the next chapter.

URL: http://able2know.org/topic/91839-1

Denial of Freedom

Are we in China?  The government is now in the business of censoring what we can see on the internet.  So information about what our government is doing, all that embarrassing stuff, is now effectively classified with such truely horrendous stuff as child porn.  Here is what you get now instead of the Wikileaks page:

Why are all these extralegal steps being taken instead of using the courts?  Why did the real attack on Wikileaks start not with the military information but with the release of the diplomatic information and the talk about the site releasing massive amounts of banking data?  The argument that Wikileaks is risking lives is simply not true and is not the reason the site is being attacked. But, then again not only will we believe anything we will put up with anything this government decides to stick us with.

Is this the real reason we have this energetic attack on Wikileaks:

http://ktwop.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/next-target-for-wikileaks-will-be-a-megadump-of-banking-information/

The Portland Bomber

Mohamed Mohamud was cynically used by the FBI as a terror weapon.  Mohamed, a terrorist wannabe and overall sad case, was like putty in the hands of the agency which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a threat that wasn't there yet.  This unsophisticated kid could eventually have proven dangerous and some intervention needed to be made, but he is no terror master mind.  By all accounts he was an emotionally unstable young man who was more angry at this family than anyone else after his parents divorce. 

Who was the real victim?  The people of Portland Oregon who were made to believe that somehow Mohamed was a real threat, and whose city was used for this theater of the absurd.  Mohamed was used to scare the American people and as a means of intimidation for the Muslim population.  An unintended, but not surprising, side effect has been the real fire bombing of the Salman Al Farisi Islamic Center in Corvallis, Oregon.   That  is widely believed to be related to the play acting drama that unfolded with such drama at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony.  Even the venue of the "bomb," had to have been picked with cynical care as something sure to raise the hackles of every red blooded American as this vile foreign threat attempted to violate such a scene of goodwill and harmony as a Christmas tree lighting ceremony.  Oh, it was probably a "holiday lighting ceremony." 

This high profile media event which was, at least at first, announced with a bit of hysteria in the media was overplayed.  There were many points earlier where he could have been arrested.  Instead the event was carefully orchestrated for the largest amount of drama and media play.  Kind of like a Sylvester Stallone movie.   You can't tell me that when that kid dialed that cell phone number and nothing happened there were not some law enforcement officials setting around laughing their heads off.

$arah, how is that drilly baby drill working out for cha?

In my last post I got after $arah Payme for making light of those who hope and think that things can change - for the better.  Now, I want to point out that she was all for loose restrictions on offshore drilling and provide you some pictures courtesy of the Huffington Post.  So, anyone that thinks that this is a disaster, and probably  will soon morph into a global ecological disaster, is a greenie tree hugger.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/louisiana-oil-spill-2010_n_558287.html

Greed, arrogance, and stupidity know no bounds.  

Palin Makes Fun of Hope and Change

At a recent Pitty Potty Tea Party rally Sarah Palin mocking President Obama in her gum chewing breezy glib way said:  "How is that hopey changey thing workin out for yah?"  Is Ms Palin capable of using correct English?  Anyway,... thank you Sarah now I realise what you and the tea party are all about.  You have abandoned the hope of modernity that each day can be better than the day before, and that we can make the world a better place for everyone.  It is the cynicism of Fox News and the usually fellow travellers of doom, gloom, and despair having given up hope.  This was a remarkable revelation for me.

We have been indoctrinated through civics classes (do we even teach that any more?) that America is a place where you can make it, where you have a chance, and where hard work pays off.  Even Ronald Reagan believed that. It was not too bad of a social construct!  It provided the conscious of the civil rights movement and the women's movement.   The current bunch of hard core conservatives do not believe that stuff anymore..

The current tide of conservatism is cynical, greedy, and has turned its back on American values instead embracing some kind of Christian capitalism, Ayn Rand philosophy of the damned.  I opposed Ronald Reagan on some issues but I NEVER doubted his optimism.  He was many things but not a cynic. 

Our current struggle is not with communism, Islam, or any of that stuff.  It is much more insidious and much more powerful.  It is materialism. We have drank that hemlock.  Is it a fatal dose?

Reading, Texting, and Mindfulness

When I go to the park nobody is reading anymore.  It used to be that you would see people reading under trees, or parents reading to their  children.  Now everyone is talking on the cell phone while they are in the park.  I went into Barnes & Noble to get a copy of the Paris Review and there were two people outside smoking as they were texting on cell phones. Are they more addicted to cigarettes or their cell phones?  As a matter of fact companion texting, texting while somebody else is with you, is probably our number one social interaction besides, well,... texting.  Have our lives become defined by that little screen?  Probably.

47 percent of teens can text with their eyes closed.  Fact.  And, I bet less than 17 percent can diagram a sentence.  Texting is replacing talking.

I went to a meeting the other day and there was an executive setting there texting through the whole thing.  Then a colleague tells me they go to a board meeting and there is someone there with not one, but two, phones texting throughout the meeting.

See a movie?  Cell phones.  Somebody is running or cycling?  They are listening to music with those ear buds blocking out the world.We are not content to read, smoke, run, drive, or do any of life's little tasks which define us as human without a distraction.  We have to be doing something else.  Do people text while having sex?  Apparently so.  Scroll down to the comments:  Weird Texting Moments from Womens Health Magazine:  http://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/weird-texting-moments.  The interesting thing is not so much that the women sent a text to her mom during sex but that she read it in the first place.

By the way, we are still a long way from understanding the social or even health consequences of cell phones. Here is an interesting article from GQ magazine: http://www.gq.com/cars-gear/gear-and-gadgets/201002/warning-cell-phone-radiation

Here are some more things to think about:
"The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence.  When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers." Thich Nhat Hanh

So, turn off that cell phone and read Peace in Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh, or the newspaper, or really talk and listen to someone for a change, or maybe even do nothing.  Whatever you do, please don't text me.  I will not text back.

As Much Free Speech As You Can Pay For

The supreme court ruling which came out regarding corporate spending, not limiting the money corporations can spend in the political process,  is a fraud and a scandal.  It fails to recognize the fundamental fact that the nature of corporate entities to acquire and concentrate capital far accedes the ability of individuals to do so.  It in fact limits the free speech of individuals and amplifies whatever message business wants to promote turning the arena of politics into just another marketing platform.  Even more so than it was before.

Allowing corporations to spend at will in the political process dilutes the participation of the common citizen to the point of being inconsequential.  The groans and cries for relief from the people will be drowned out by the shrill shilling of the business special interest.

America is no longer a democracy.  It is a country where the will of the people has been suborned to the will of big business.

Now I Get It: What College Is Now

I finally figured it out.  I  have been thinking about college in an outdated way and my new approach to understanding higher education now helps me to make sense out of all this.  College is no longer the realm of the intellectual elite.

Of course I knew that college was now a mass institution and that the forces of commodification have worked their magic but the obvious implications of that alluded me.  I kept assuming that higher education was still the realm of lofty thoughts, seeking after truth, and a meritocracy.  I was, of course, wrong.

Now higher education is market driven and the key to market is increased production, and market growth as well as cost containment.  The last frontier in the commodification of higher education is cost containment and we have yet to see the Walmart of higher education emerge.  Instead, the cost of a college degree has continued to rise beyond all reasonableness fueled by usurious student loans where the government acts as the enforcer. Miss your payment and Bruno will come down and break your knees.

Cadillac Health Plans and Splitting the Democratic Alliance

President Obama was elected because he manged to create an alliance of voters who might otherwise have strayed into the independent and Republican camps.  These are marginal voters who often swing elections and they are incredibly difficult to define before-the-fact (as during an election or as an event is unfolding) since they are swayed by fractional micro-issues of an  uncertain pattern or logic.  One example would be a very liberal person who is adamantly against any kind of abortion, or conversely a very conservative person who was for gay marriage.  Yet, those examples are more broad and predictable than what I am talking about. Obama won his election on the margins and inevitably those margins are too fragile to hold up under the stress of a volatile political environment with as much polarization as ours has. Complicating this issue is that the Republicans have utilized a scorched earth approach as to dealing with Obama with a profound inclination to disavow any legislation he proffers just because of it's pedigree. Now the Republicans are exploiting a fundamental weakness in Obama's support by working stealthily to alienate labor from the administration. It is an opportunistic work of genius worthy of that archdemon Karl Rove. The exquisitely  ironic part of the whole debacle is that President Obama is doing the heavy lifting.  The conservatives are just setting back reaping the benefits regardless of the outcome.  The damage will have been done.

One of the pillars of organized labor has been to secure for its members good, no great, health care benefits.  Labor has even given up wage increases and other benefits for better health care coverage.  Desperately seeking a middle way to help the health care reform initiative pass the remaining hurdles the idea of taxing Cadillac health care benefits (see the excellent explanatory article by Slate:  http://www.slate.com/id/2232434/) has gained significant purchase.  Time magazine has a pretty good article explaining the basics of that strategy as well as their disapproval of it:  http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1913147,00.html

Is it a good idea to initiate some kind of tax on the so called Cadillac health care plans?  I do not know.  I do know though that it creates some animosity between organized labor and the Obama administration.  Even if labor leadership decides to stand with Obama on this emotional issue will the fabled "rank and file" stand?  Isn't it strange and disconcerting how all issues are now emotional as if our whole society has the mentality of an immature adolescent? An emo?  I think I liked hip hop better because I can not stand whining.  Think about it, Rush Limbaugh is more emo than hip-hop.

Obama will probably get his health care reform. Unfortunately in our current system of spite and animosity there is the very real danger of it being a Golem with no soul. Keep in mind that in Hebrew golem has the literal meaning of a shapeless mass.

Health care reform has turned into a conflict between those that have (no matter how little they have), and those who have nothing.  Those who have even a little bit have been cleverly convinced that health care reform is the hellish vision of a Muslim president who is not even a citizen out to destroy us all with the contradictory swords of Islam and socialism.  So, relax, turn on Fox and make a list of how illegal aliens (code for anyone who is Hispanic, gay, or well,... just different than you the pure blooded American) is ruining this country.  In the end you get exactly the government you deserve despite the efforts of those who would like to salvage some decency out of the ignorant morass we have become.  If  you are lucky there may even be a tea party within driving distance this Sunday after church.

Here is the problem with health care:  It costs money.  Even bad health care costs a lot of money.  Providing health care at any level is exponentially more expensive than a can of beans and a bag of rice and arguably we are not doing such a great job of even feeding the hungry.  So it is no surprise we are not willing to pay for their visit to the doctor.  In the end, health care reform is really about sharing the cost and anything that does not promote rank selfishness, requiring us to help others, is called socialism.  It is sad to see that we are a country that is more committed to the principles of Ayn Rand than Judeo-Christian values.  When Cain killed Able he haughtily  asked God "am I my brothers keeper?"  In American we are increasingly answering that question with a resounding "NO."