Anti-Bush despite my dream in which I was Laura Bush and loved George and was so grateful to him for making me the First Lady that - although I knew he was really doing a bad job - I decided I was going to work for his re-election because being the First Lady was so much fun and I sure didn't want to give it up...

Saturday, December 30, 2006

On Tasting Saddam's Blood

Saddam Hussein has been hung. The chalice containing his blood is being held to our lips and, at least for this blogger, the taste is acrid.

This has been a day of sober reflection, a day in which my American soul felt sick with shame over what has been done in my name. There was no energy in my step as I walked while wondering: Who believes this one death was worth the destruction of an entire nation?

Who believes it was worth the life of Abir al-Janabi, the young girl who was gang raped and killed by U.S. troops? Was the horror she endured - was her life or the lives of her family members - worth this?

In regard to the impact on U.S. families: Who believes that securing this one death was worth the deaths of 3000 and the maiming of 22,000 [and some say 40,000] recruits?

My god, I hope the answer is not many; not many believe this single dismal end justifies the pox we have unleashed.

There is one uncomfortable truth that many are expressing: if we would attempt to rid the world of murderers like Saddam Hussein, then none of us can be one.

Yet, that is exactly what this administration has made the U.S. as a nation and each of us by proxy: a mass murderer.

Depending upon whose statistics you believe, between 52,139 and 600,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S. invasion. Anyone who thinks atrocities like Haditha or the rape of Abir are isolated incidents is lying to himself, showing ignorance of both statistics and human nature.

Hawks and the "empathy-challenged" are fond of bad-mouthing the compassionate. But they lack the insight to realize what the world would be like if every single compassionate person was eliminated and those who remained were "empathy-free."

That "eye for an eye" strike-first mentality that the fearful, power hungry and rapacious advocate would soon result in universal blindness, if not outright extinction.






Saturday, December 02, 2006

Of JD, Nikes, Ipods, RF and... WE WON!

I am delighted that I was WRONG WRONG WRONG! Hooray and yippie! The election was not stolen. There were too many precincts and it would have taken too many frauds to keep Congress in Republican hands. It couldn't have been hidden. Thus - oh joy - the Democrats have the House and Senate.

Let's just work to keep the momentum building through 2008 so we can throw out more of the bums. Once we get a progressive president we can turn this country to solving problems instead of fighting over wedge issues while sitting in the Stone Age.

So does this mean I need to stop being a negative, depressed "Eyore," stop pointing out all the corruption and start focusing on positives?

I suppose so - although we still have problems with apportionment and the way democracy has been subverted by corrupted processes - so please let me have just one more flameout of sarcastic, negative comment that is completely barren of any solutions:

John McCain said that he would "commit suicide" if Democrats took the Senate. I cut him a lot of slack before that but, really, where was the man's mind? Why does he keep supporting a party that, long ago, turned against his most cherished ideals? Yet, at least he has an excuse for being a screwed up authoritarian follower: he was tortured as a prisoner of war.

Okay, okay, I'll quit.

Negativity's addictive you know. That why all those authoritarian Republicans love to hate. When that angry and self-righteous adrenaline surges through your blood, boy-oh-boy it's addictive.

But Republican smear tactics don't work nearly as well when Liberals try them because the tactics are authoritarian by nature and Liberals aren't, typically, authoritarian. (Duh.) So they aren't turned on by that mindset and approach.

If you wonder why not, read John Dean's Conservatives Without Conscience. What a great and informative book.

I put off reading it because I thought it would be just another listing of all the corruption and meanspirited dirty tricks Republicans have engaged in since 1994.

I don't need to go over it all again because - trust me - after five years of being glued to the Internet watching this trainwreck of an administration in action, I pretty much know the laundry list of debacles by heart.

But Dean explains the modern Republican psyche in psychological and social terms. He sites a cornucopia of academic studies of the authoritarian personality and puts the puzzle pieces together as to why these people are so - there's no other word for it - nasty.

Now I've said some pretty inflamatory things such as "the new breed of Republican is a mental defective without a heart," but I'm such a lightweight in the nastiness department that it's laughable. Secretly, I don't feel good about saying such things and I'm never out to destroy anyone. Also, I know perfectly well that most readers know the problems backwards and forwards by now and really tire of the hyperbole.

But apparently the authoritarian psyche never does. Also, apparently, they really are not mental defectives (dang I knew that was too simplistic an explanation) but they simply lack self-reflection.

Blinded to their own faults to a more extreme extent than the average person (and let's face it, we're all pretty darned good at ignoring our own warts) Dean says that those authoritarians who can be made to see what they are doing and the psychological reasons why they are doing it are capable of change. A few have experienced a reawakening of conscience and have become human beings again.

So I stand corrected, chastened - and dare I say - a little more optimistic?

But I digress. Get the book out of the library and arm yourself with understanding.

Next time I promise to wax optimistic on our opportunties to solve some of our most critical national problems - solutions apparently exist - but for now I simply must point out these stories:

Mandatory RFID chips in our ID's and in products we purchase may well give us problems similar to this story about nikes, ipods and radio frequencies. I don't think anyone has thought of all the ramifications that radio frequency technology can and will have.

Likewise, hundreds in Colorado cannot open their garage doors thanks to air force transmissions. Of course each homeowner can just get a new opener for around $250 US.

Lastly:

It looks like the government of Iraq is now embracing censorship of the media. Apparently the dangers of being in that country have not quite been sufficient to stop all reporting despite the fact that 107 journalists have died in Iraq since 2003.

It wasn't enough that they've been putting their lives on the line by being there.

Now it looks like they'll be facing jail time if the Iraqi government doesn't like a story it deems "too negative."

Yeah, we invaded Iraq to promote democracy.

And to anyone who still believes that load of horse manure: I have twenty-five million dollars I want to share with you if you'll just give me your bank account and social security numbers. Please note that those with a net savings of less than five thousand dollars need not apply.











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