AFA

It's good to see that the American Family Association is again using their vast resources and millions of devoted followers to focus on something truly important in our modern world ... sit-com television:


Group Says 'Will & Grace' Will Mock Crucifixion
Is this to be the direction of religious activism from now on? The recent death of Coretta Scott King reminded us of the legacy of true religious activism and the power to do good. All that the AFA reminds us of is that are some that preach bigotry and moral superiority in the name of religion.

"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. ... But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -- Coretta Scott King

State of the Union

Our President must be living in some other country, because his State of the Union speech did not represent our country:

• Life is good. That is ... if you have a household income of over $1 million, life is good. Those households have received, on average, a tax cut of $103,000. For the rest of us in the real world, it's not so rosy. For the year 2005, nominal wages rose only 2.4% while inflation rose 3.4%. You do the math ... that meant that our real compensation went down 0.9%. Not quite the "healthy and vigorous" economy that our President trumpeted in his State of the Union speech.
• Bush hailed spending on research for alternative fuel sources while his actions are the exact opposite: "Fact -- Bush pushed for renewable energy cuts in latest budget: President Bush's FY06 budget request for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) energy efficiency and renewable energy programs envisioned "reductions totaling nearly $50 million -- an overall cut of roughly four percent." (Renewable Energy Access, 2/28/05)" - Bush Wanted Renewable Energy Cuts
• He encourages children to take more math and science to remain competitive in the world while proposing to cut education budget
• Perhaps the most telling moment in his speech was when the Congress loudly applauded when he said that Congress had failed to act on his Social Security privatization plan.

Clueless ... completely clueless.

Fun

I have not been particularly prolific in the past few weeks but we've been busy with stuff. Good stuff. Fun stuff.

Alex and Michelle went to the Wildlife World Zoo with Alex's preschool:


And Michelle's mom is visiting us from Iowa. We all went up to my folks' place in Kingman this past weekend. This was unique in that this was only the 2nd time that her mom and my parents had met. The first was when we were married. No dramatic reason for the gap ... just 1500 miles distance:


That's our pug, Duchess, in the wagon. Our folks kindly baby sat the dog while we spent the next night in Laughlin, NV:



$10 down and several buffets later, it's back to the old grind and exercising at the YMCA to make up for the buffets. We joined at the start of January and have been going 5 or 6 times a week.

Movies

On the recommendation of Jewish Atheist, I rented and watched Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. It's a great documentary that really points out the weaknesses of our corporate culture and a government that encourages it. These disciples of deregulation that worship at the altar of the free-market drank a bit too much of their own Kool-Aid. The scary thing is that there is no reason why this can't happen again. We have lobbyists for industry writing legislation and all-too-willing Congress that looks the other way.

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I was flipping around channels on TV this Saturday and stopped on a movie that I'd seen before and thought was OK (good Hollywood fluff) but hadn't not really given much thought to afterward: Enemy of the State. A re-watching of the movie cast it in a different light. When I first saw it (1998), it seemed like a nice thriller based on a wacko conspiracy theory type premise. After all, some of the details of the movie seemed pretty far-out:

- Corrupt politician with ties to the NSA
- domestic spying by the NSA because justified because of a perceived threat by foreigners living on our soil but instead used for political purposes

Far-out then. Oddly prescient in hindsight. Here's an exchange early in the movie between the Will Smith character and his wife (they are both lawyers and are watching a newscast of a politician being interviewed):

SENATOR TASKEN (TV)
This is no longer a theoretical
problem, it's a reality. Turn on
the news. Bombings, hostages--

DEAN
He's got a point.

STACY
Bobby!

DEAN
Not a very good one, but--

STACY
So you tap everyone's phone? You
use computers to probe financial
records? New Search and Seizure laws?

DEAN
Just for the criminals.

STACY
We won't suspend the civil rights
of the good people.

DEAN
Right.

STACY
You should take this seriously.

Dean's response, while amusing and done in a kidding manner, is an all too common response by people today in response to their current NSA spying news.

An exchange that ends the movie should be the real response that people pose. The movie closes with a fake Larry King interview with the politician where Larry King says: "Congressman Albert, how do we draw the line... between protection of national security, obviously the government's need to obtain intelligence data, and the protection of civil liberties, particularly the sanctity of my home? You've got no right to come into my home."

Trivia: The NSA character played by Jon Voigt coincidentally has a birthdate of 9/11/40 ... ironic considering when the movie was made)

In related news, I applaud the stance that Google has taken to stand up to the Department of Justice's request for a random sampling of search data for normal citizens. Again, the government tries to justify it and say that they are using the data to track down sex offenders. But nothing is stopping them from using the data for whatever purpose they want:

Phone calls, e-mails, and now search data. Where will Bush stop?

A line has to be drawn somewhere. I've used this quote before, but I think it bears repeating:

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin

Why We Blog

I read an interesting article on ZDNET, a technology news website. It analyzes the nature of blogging and it's similarities to rap culture. I won't really go into that. What was more interesting to me is that it does a good job of listing why we blog, why we read blogs and how it helps us to both think and write:

• " ... Blogging is part e-mail, it is part column, it is part news story–it can encompass a wide variety of styles and formats. And it is all within an environment that encourages trying things out, it encourages "beta releases," every "t" doesn't need to be crossed, it can be raw."

• " ... What I noticed was that "keeping it real" was real important in both blogging and in the Hip-Hop/Rap music scene. Keeping it real is something which you can't fake–you know it when you hear/feel it. ... if you can't keep it real it really shows."

• " ... this phenomena is also affecting my off-line life. For example, it is really difficult for me to tell a white lie such as "I got caught in traffic" or "I'm late, my cat died." It just feels too weird and it just "reads" strangely if I try to write it.

• "I remember the first time I met Jeremy Zawodny, Yahoo's top blogger, we discussed this topic. He asked me a question, "What do you do if if you can't keep it real?"
  
  I told him that was easy: "Just don't say it.""

• "One of the things I learned this past year was that the more I write (blog) the more authentic I become online and off-line. There is something in the process of writing (blogging) that has opened up an entirely new experience of myself."

• "And I often have an experience of being able to "think" through my fingers. For example, I will start typing an analysis of a tech industry news event, and it is the act of writing that allows me to "think it through." That usually means scrapping the first draft and ending up with a much better piece."

Here's the original article:

Blogosphere should pay its respects to rap culture

Dems/Golden Globes

Somebody woke up the Democrats. It's about time.

Revelations of phone tapping by the Bush Administration "virtually compels the conclusion that the president of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently."

"...A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government."

"... An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free. In the words of James Madison, "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."" -- from Former Vice President Gore's recent speech on constitutional Issues

"When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about. It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard."

"... This administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country." - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at a speech sponsored by the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network

==================================================================


Congrats to George Clooney for winning the Golden Globe for best supporting actor for Syriana. His performance was compelling and shows that movies don't have to be empty Hollywood crap to do well. And unlike most other artists, he's not afraid to poke a little fun at the political machine ... making a joke about Jack Abramoff. It would have been nice if he had won for Good Night and Good Luck also.

The Golden Globes are entertaining because you see a lot of the odd meetings during the breaks between awards. One such meeting that I caught a glimpse of was between Clooney and Tim Robbins. Hopefully they were discussing a future collaboration. That's a combo that I'd pay to see ... and so would a lot of progressives.

Most Underreported Huminatarian Stories of 2005

We each get caught up in our own lives, in our work, in our church, in our families. Celebrity, politics, sports all occupy the airwaves. And regardless of where you live in the world, America seems to dominate the news. But unfortunately, a lot is going on outside our borders and these stories don't get the attention they deserve. Every year, a great organization called Doctors Without Borders releases a list of the top 10 underreported humanitarian stories of that year. Here is their list for 2005. Click on the heading for each to read more about them.

• Congolese ravaged by war and disease - It is estimated that millions of people have died needlessly since civil war broke out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 1998, some because of the violence, but the great majority from preventable diseases like malaria and measles. The past year has been called a transition period, a time when the country was meant to move from war to peace following an accord signed in 2002.
  
  However, for the majority of the people living in this vast troubled country, the transition is nothing more than a mirage. Violence continues to flare in Ituri province, North and South Kivu provinces, and in parts of Katanga province, while the rest of the country languishes in extreme deprivation, lacking food, shelter and the most basic health care ...


• Staggering Needs, Insecurity, and Dismal Response for Chechens Living in Fear - Caught in a stranglehold between Russian Federation forces and Chechen armed groups, traumatized civilians continue to bear the brunt of this conflict of attrition and find they have nowhere to go to be safe. Driven back to Chechnya out of tented camps in Ingushetia, thousands of reluctant civilians returned to their devastated homes only to find what they had fled: fear, violence, and an ever-growing feeling of isolation ...


• Haiti's Capital Wracked by Waves of Violence - Many people in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, are trapped by the widespread violence that has hit the city in waves since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was pressured into exile in February 2004. People have been shot and killed, deliberately and unintentionally, by all of the armed factions fighting in the seaside slums, or "quartiers populaires," and the violence — both politically motivated and criminal — is spreading throughout the city. MSF treated more than 2,250 people for violence-related injuries in 2005 at a trauma center set up in the capital, including nearly 1,500 gunshot victims. Half of those treated are women, children or the elderly, underscoring the toll the violence has taken on civilians ... (My friend Debra who I met through Sierra Club has made several humanitarian trips to Haiti with her church. Their story is here: Memphis to Haiti)


• No R&D for HIV/AIDS Tools Adapted to Impoverished Settings - The overall picture is well-known. More than 40 million people worldwide have HIV/AIDS, and every day, 8,000 people die of AIDS-related illnesses — 1,400 of them children. While the HIV/AIDS pandemic receives regular media coverage, almost no attention is paid to the near-total lack of research and development (R&D) into new tools specifically adapted for patients most affected by the AIDS crisis: those living in poverty in the developing world ...



• Clashes in Northeastern India Take a Heavy Toll on Civilians - Civilians in India's northeastern Assam and Manipur states continue to be affected by recurring outbreaks of political violence along religious and ethnic lines, as well as by long-lasting conflicts between the Indian government and militant groups. More than 90 people were massacred in Assam's Karbi Anglong district during the latest outburst of violence and retaliatory killings in October 2005 ...


• War is Officially Over, But Urgent Needs Go Unmet in Southern Sudan
  - After more than 20 years of civil war between the government of Sudan and southern rebels, a peace deal signed in January 2005 seemed to open the possibility of a brighter future for the Sudanese. Yet as government forces and rebels agreed to lay down their arms, fighting continued in the country's western region of Darfur. Since early 2003, the Darfur conflict has cost thousands of lives and forced millions to flee while government-backed militias have carried out a campaign of terror against civilians ... Chronic underdevelopment combined with continuing violence in Upper Nile state indicate that even if the new peace does hold, any real improvement in living conditions remains a distant hope ...


• Somalis Endure Continuing Conflict and Deprivation - Since 1991, Somalia has been a state without a functioning central government. Fourteen years of conflict has precipitated the collapse of public health structures and a total absence of health care services. In most parts of the country, clinics and hospitals have been looted or seriously damaged by armed groups, while the UN estimates that there are only 4 doctors and 28 nurses or midwives for every 100,000 people ...



• Colombians Trapped by Violence and Fear - The situation for Colombians affected by the country's 40-year-old civil conflict did not improve in 2005. For decades, government military forces, paramilitary groups, and armed guerrillas have fought against the backdrop of the narcotics trade and conflict over natural resources, terrorizing and targeting civilians in both rural and urban areas. Violence continues to be the leading cause of death in the country and more than 3 million people have fled from their homes. Colombia now has the third highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world ...


• Insecurity Worsens Already Desperate Situation in Northern Uganda - For nearly twenty years, people in northern Uganda have suffered from brutal conflict, including attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and forced displacements by the government. Today, more than 1.6 million people — nearly 80 percent of the population in the north — have been uprooted to camps that offer false security and hardly any assistance. While the death toll from direct violence continues to climb, many people die needlessly from preventable diseases like malaria, respiratory infections and diarrhea ...


• Crisis Deepening in Ivory Coast - The war that started in the Ivory Coast in 2002 has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and forced hundreds of thousands of desperate residents to flee their homes. It has destroyed the livelihoods of many farmers, severely damaged the country's health-care system, and left many of the most vulnerable Ivorians without primary health care or sufficient food ...

Archive Updated

The individual listing of posts under the Categories heading at right have been updated with all the current posts.

God is Punishing Us

Ah, nothing like our religious voices being understanding in times of need (WV mine disaster):

"We often turn to God only when we feel like nothing else can be done. And, in the Bible, God rebuked nations who only turned to Him in their most extreme moments of need. That has been our tradition in the United States. Whenever we find ourselves in a situation where we get to the end of our own resources, we turn to God." -- Conservative Christian leader Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council

Instead of being compassionate for those who died and their families, Schenck thought it was more important to criticize society for not being more Christian. Perhaps his ire should be aimed at a so-called Christian President that has gutted the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration and reduced the amount of mine safety teams.

If one were Christian, you would think that you would not want people like Schenck and Pat Robertson speaking for you. But the collective cognitive dissonance of a large percentage of Christians allows them to forgive anything of a person as long as they say they are men of God.

Speaking of our friend Pat, Israel has wisely cancelled a business deal with Mr. Robertson due to his comments of last week that said Ariel Sharon's stroke was God punishing him for pulling out of Gaza.

If there were a God, I have a hard time imagining that Pat Robertson would be the image of Christianity that he (oops ... should that be HE?) would want to be seen. And if God was truly in the business of striking people down, the tripe that Robertson utters would have to be blasphemous. God ... that's your cue.

Zoo Lights

An overall pretty good weekend. Saturday night we went to Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo. It's pretty much self-explanatory. Zoo ... lights ... at night. Pretty simple but it entertains the kids and is fairly popular out here.




The last one is not bad photography. I purposely had a longer exposure and moved the camera to get a goofy effect. Though, by my wife's tepid response to the picture (and my explanation of it), it still may be bad photography. Just not accidental bad photography. More like well-thought-out, lame, bad photography. They're penguins, by the way.


On Sunday, we went and saw the Coyotes get thumped by Columbus. But the game was really secondary. Though Alex and I have went to a few games already, it was Michelle's first in the new arena. So, Michelle and Alex spent a lot of time wandering around exploring the place. And I was able to watch the game, beer in hand, in relative peace.

Pastor Paul

Taking to heart a comment that Jewish Atheist made to Sadie on his blog about trying to make a point of "showcasing" the positive aspects of religion or religious organizations, I will seek to do just that ... for a change.

Because I seek to expose the hypocrisy in politics and religion, I'm also usually showcasing the negative. But I'm going to seek to show those that are doing good. And it's very easy to do for someone very close by. I cannot say enough good things about my wife's pastor, Paul Nelson at Celebration Lutheran in Peoria. Being a humanist, I do not attend church, but upon occasion ... usually a music program or some special thing for Alex ... I find myself at the church. I always feel a little bit guilty (I know that I shouldn't, but I do) when I do go, but the Pastor always calls me by name and greets me warmly. And after hearing his sermons, I'm always glad that I went. He is by far the most liberal religious speaker that I have met in person. The lesson that he stresses (and that I believe a lot of Christians have forgot) is to respect humanity. The church does a lot of great work in the community with the Westside Food Bank, Andre House, Habitat for Humanity, etc.

Pastor Paul recommended the book, God's Politics by Jim Wallis of Sojourners. It is a very good book that explores the role of religion in politics and vice-versa and how both parties make mistakes in handling it. Some of the more inciteful quotes from the book:

"It is also often said that fundamentalism comes from taking religion too seriously. The answer, then, is to take religion less seriously. Wrong again. The best response to fundamentalism is to take faith more seriously than fundamentalism usually does. The best critique of fundamentalism comes from faith itself, which challenges the accommodations of fundamentalism to theocracy, power, and violence. It is faith that leads us to assert the vital religious commitments that fundamentalists often leave out, namely compassion, social justice, peacemaking, humility, tolerance, and even democracy as a religious commitment.

... Of particular concern is how modern fundamentalism has made the move to theocracy -- in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. That move is really a betrayal of the biblical faith that regards political power much more suspiciously.

... Genuine faith, in all our traditions, either forbids violence as a methodology or, at most, says it must always be limited and lamented, never glorified or celebrated. True religion always seeks alternatives to violence that try to break its deadly cycle.

The organization that Jim Wallis is involved with, Sojourners, is great. They are, at their heart, very liberal and proponents of social justice.

So, while I do not believe in God, I respect that others may not agree. I try not to judge them by whether they believe in God or not, but rather in how they live their lives and treat others. Hypocrisy, in all its forms, is what irritates me the most and why religion is frequently the subject of my ire. The very tenets of religious faith would seem to preclude Christians from promoting violence and not caring for the downtrodden, but we have a large segment that does just that. And they are my focus. People like Pastor Paul and Jim Wallis, however, are what is right and good about religion.

And you had to know that I couldn't get through a whole post without bringing up something negative about religion. It's fairly easy to do as long as you read or hear Pat Robertson occasionally:

Robertson Links Sharon's Stroke to Wrath

I'm sorry, but if you are a Christian and you listen to a single word that comes out of this fool's mouth, you are an idiot.

Munich

This past Sunday, I took the time to see a great film, Munich. If I had seen it sooner, it would definitely have qualified to be in my top 10. This is a deeply moving movie that does a great job of taking the time to show how seeking revenge can affect both sides. Like all the great Spielberg movies of the last 15 years, Munich was filmed by Janusz Kaminski. There is a smoky, realistic quality to how all of these are filmed that I like. Deepak Chopra wrote a great review on Huffington Post that I excerpted here:

"... Steven Spielberg's deeply sobering film about the terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics draws a trail that leads directly to the attacks of 9/11. This is made clear in the final scene, set across the river from Manhattan, which features the World Trade Center towers in the background. The film suggests that our eye-for-an-eye approach to terrorism began in Munich 30 years ago.

It also shows, with sickeningly convincing brutality, how tragically that approach has failed. The message is that we are still on the road of endless violence and that the War on Terror, no matter how many jihadists are killed, will become our own paralyzing nightmare.

... It's possible to see equality between Arabs and Israelis, not in terms of right and wrong, but in terms of two opponents equally victimized by hatred. Israel and the Arab states have contributed to the sorrow of the world by carrying the hugest weight of that sorrow themselves. Insofar as right-wing factions in this country drag us into a war against evil, we will also be victimized, and our claim to be civilized will weaken bit by bit.

By films' end Avner succeeds in killing many of his assigned targets, only to realize with anguish that every single one was replaced by someone worse. This is happening now, only instead of a single Osama whose face is known everywhere, we are fostering millions of faceless enemies. We have no idea how many of them will become terrorists, but we can be certain that the stranglehold of hatred is growing tighter. Spielberg's disturbingly dark film is therefore more about our future than about our past."

Hopefully, when people see this film, they think just a little bit about our current situation. That's what all good films do ... make you think about yourself and the world that you live in. And just maybe, you try to change things.

top 10 lists for 2005

From the home office in Glendale, Arizona:

Top 10 movies that I saw in 2005(apologies to Munich, Good Night & Good Luck, King Kong and Brokeback Mountain as I have not had the chance to see them yet). Several were realeased in 2004 but I saw them for the first time last year. In no particular order:

• Syriana - see my recent review
• The Sea Inside - great performance by Javier Bardem
• The Machinist - a scary performance by Christian Bale
• Crash - my favorite movie of the last year
• Hotel Rwanda - along with Crash, probably the two most important films I've seen in the last year
• Sin City - the closest thing to a comic book on screen that you will ever see. Stunning visually.
• Serenity - a much better film than Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (which I liked)
• Batman Begins - a nice reinvention of the series with a great cast
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - I like Azkaban more but this was still very good
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - a faithful adaptation of the spirit of the book.

Top 10 entertainers who weren't afraid to make a political statement with their work this year:

• George Clooney - Good Night and Good Luck, Syriana
• Don Cheadle - Crash, Hotel Rwanda
• System of a Down - B.Y.O.B
• Green Day - American Idiot
• Nine Inch Nails - Hand that Feeds
• Jon Stewart
• Bill Maher
• Lamb of God - Now You've Got Something to Die For
• Kanye West
• Rolling Stones - Sweet Neocon
  

Top 10 fun/important things that I did this year:

• Sierra Club Service Trip
• Phoenix New Times 10K
• Flying in Prescott
• Kaibab Lake
• Cindy Sheehan Vigil
• Kitt Peak / Kartchner Caverns
• D-backs with my folks
• Mesa Southwest Museum
• Slipknot/Lamb of God/Shadows Fall Concert
• Luke Air Show

Comedy of Terror

Tony Blair, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld - You're My Prize Guys

by Terry Jones

Well the end of the year is as good a time as any to distribute prizes. And first is the Gary Glitter Cup for Self-Restraint, to Tony Blair. It can't have been an easy couple of years for him, and yet he has somehow managed to keep that smile on his lips and that cheerful sparkle in his eye with a degree of self-restraint that impressed the judges.

Over the past two years, Tony has seen all his Iraq policies turn into unmitigated disasters. Instead of his stated aim of bringing peace and happiness to the people of Iraq, he has brought them chaos, bloodshed, violence and misery. Instead of making Britain safer, his policies have made this country a target for terrorism for the foreseeable future.

And now there is open talk in the Senate of impeaching George Bush; the New York Times accuses him of "recklessness" and claims he "may also have violated the law". Tony must be finding it difficult to sleep. Yet he is able to get up in the morning unassisted! He is able to look at himself in the mirror, shave without damaging his throat, and go to work with every appearance of a man who imagines he's doing a good job.

This achievement richly deserves the Gary Glitter Cup. Well done, Tony!

And now we come to the Dick Cheney "Goblet of Fire" Award for Courage in the Face of Action. And for the sixth successive year, the award goes to ... the vice-president of the US ... Dick Cheney!

This year the judge (who is, once again, Dick Cheney) cites in particular Mr Cheney's fearlessness in speaking with authority on military matters despite the fact that he has never served in the military. In fact Mr Cheney received no less than five deferments rather than serve his country in uniform. Nor has he lost his nerve, despite seeing the death rate of American servicemen and women climb above the 2,000 mark. Those who have already died will be heartened by his courageous determination to risk yet more people's lives.

Well done, Dick. The "Goblet of Fire" is yours once again.

The Kellogg Brown and Root Shield for Corporate Services also goes to Dick Cheney, along with the purse of between $180,000 and $1m (payable annually as "deferred compensation"). KBR is the engineering and construction arm of Halliburton, of which Dick Cheney was CEO from 1995 to 2000 - in which time the value of Halliburton's US government contracts almost doubled from $1.2bn to $2.3bn.

He then became vice-president, and things have got even better for KBR, even though Mr Cheney resigned his company position. As of March 1 2004, KBR has been awarded reconstruction work in Iraq and Afghanistan worth at least $3.9bn.

So step up, Dick Cheney!

We now come to the Abu Ghraib Trophy for Human Rights, and ... yes, it's another triumph for the VP! Dick Cheney has stood firm against a wicked cabal of Republican senators - John Warner of Virginia, John McCain of Arizona, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina - who tried to sneak a clause into the 2005 military spending bill that would outlaw "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment" to military prisoners. How can the US champion human rights unless it is allowed unrestrained access to any torture techniques it considers fit, to use against enemies that are both sub-human and have forfeited any rights to be treated as our fellow creatures?

Well done, Dick! I hope the Abu Ghraib Trophy will sit proudly alongside all those others.

We now move on to the Narnia Prize for the Closest Impersonation of Donald Rumsfeld, which this year goes to ... yes, Donald Rumsfeld! Donald has consistently played himself, throughout the unfolding military and public relations disaster in Iraq and the exposure of torture in US military prisons. Eschewing all imitations, he has brought his philosophical double-think and understated, homespun comedy to all affairs of state, no matter how grave. Chaos and lawlessness in Iraq? "Freedom's untidy," says the defence secretary, November 2005. Hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay? "There are a number of people who do go on a diet," says Rummy. Great stuff.

Finally we come to the Apocalypse Now! Award for Redefining the World, which this year goes to the president of the United States, George Bush.

The judges were unanimous. The president claimed that in the second world war, the forces of freedom defeated the ideology of fascism. In the cold war, those same forces defeated communism. "Today, in the Middle East, freedom is contending with ... terrorists affiliated with or inspired by al-Qaida," whose ultimate aim is to "establish a totalitarian Islamic empire that reaches from Indonesia to Spain".

With a simple piece of unnoticed elision, George Bush has recreated the crusades. Rumsfeld and Cheney can rest assured that the arms industry will flourish for years to come. The west has a new enemy: Islam.

Poor Islam. Poor Christianity. Poor us.

George Bush, the Apocalypse Now! award is yours.

X-mas gifts

To get some idea of what I enjoy (and spend too much time doing), witness a sampling of the Christmas gifts I received this year:

• 2 new bookcases
• a Barnes and Noble gift card

I've already went online and ordered the following at B&N:

• Against All Enemies by Richard Clarke
• House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger
• Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet by James Mann
• Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative by David Brock
• Had Enough? A Handbook for Fighting Back by James Carville
• The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill by Ron Suskind

I really should read fiction once in awhile ... but real life is just more interesting right now.

Syriana

I saw a very good movie last night: Syriana. I won't tell you the characters or what happens. I will tell you that it's about oil:

• How we do anything to get it. We will support anyone so that we can have ready access to it.
• We'll grease the wheels of government to get it. And government will gladly acquiesce.
• We're not interested in elevating ourselves or the people of the Middle East. We're only interested in keeping the oil flowing.
• Oil companies can and will do anything in the name of increasing their profits.
• People of integrity and of change are collateral damage. They will be thrown under the bus by the corrupt.
• How we turn an incredibly complex world situation into a political speech punchline.

The intertwining storylines and documentary style camera work is reminiscent of Traffic, for good reason. The director and writer, Steven Gaghan, was the writer of Traffic. Plus, Clooney and Steven Soderburgh were both producers of Syrianna, as they were with Traffic. The choices in movies and causes that Clooney has made over the last years are admirable. Here is someone who could have put it on auto-pilot and chose to turn out any piece of studio crap to make a quick buck, but chose to use his clout to make personal, political movies like "Good Night and Good Luck" and "Syriana" that could have jeopardized his career. But rather, because of the quality of what he has done, they have strengthened it. This was similar in many ways to Mel Gibson getting the Passion of the Christ made. Though I don't agree with a lot of Gibson's views and don't believe that Passion was as much of a cinematic triumph as it was made out to be, I respect the risk that he took to make a personal film. And I respect George Clooney even more.


There have been several books describing the Middle East situation, oil, our involvement, etc. Imperial Hubris is one. House of Bush, House of Saud is another. I recommend them both. And I recommend this movie.

War on Christmas ... not!

I will begin this by saying I'm not offended if you say 'Merry Christmas' to me. Despite the irony, I often say Merry Christmas myself. But I'm sick of this horseshit pushed by Fox News and even encouraged by mainstream media that there is a war on Christmas. Many companies, mine included, choose to say Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings. This is for many reasons. It is not a weakness to acknowledge that the whole world is not Christian and to be mindful of that. Also, you have to understand that the holiday has come to mean more (and perhaps less) than what the original Christian intent may have been. Cyberkitten has a great couple of posts on her blog, Seeking a Little Truth, that can do a much better job than I of explaining. So much of Christian mythology is just that ... mythology ... most likely borrowed from earlier civilizations.

Most holidays, whether you like it or not, morph from whatever their meaning may have once meant. And that's OK. Most people don't know what the true meaning of some holidays are. Their true origins would be surprising to most ... especially Christians. The beginnings of Easter, for example, predate Jesus by several centuries and have pagan origins. The celebration began (and continues to be) as a celebration of the fertility of the earth and most of its popular symbols represent that (the chick, the egg, the rabbit, etc.). The Christian church tried to reinterpret the holiday but the persistence of those early symbols attests to their strength.

And right-wing religious nut job organizations like the American Family Association, who purport to be "pro-family", are the ones that manufacture these so-called controversies. Groups like these have the ears of millions of Christians and could do so much good with that power, yet choose it to preach hate and to manufacture non-existent controversies. If I was the owner of any of the companies boycotted by AFA, I would not even give them the time of day. First of all, they do not represent all Christians. Secondly, they are selective if what they deem to be offensive. They will complain about Target having displays that say "Happy Holidays" but they seem to have no problem with Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart destroys small businesses, does not allow workers to have a living wage, descriminates in hiring and in promotions, etc. Please explain to me how those things are Christian.

Happy Holidays!

All of you have a great Holiday season. Celebrate it in the way in which you see fit. But above all, share it with your families and try to share with those in need.

Bush is King

Is it just me or does it feel like we're in the middle of some kind of political thriller? Every day brings me face to face to some new revelation that 5 years ago I could not have even imagined would be happening in our country. In the face of news that the President secretly approved illegal eavesdropping (repeatedly) within our border, he is defiant and insists he will continue to do so. Furthermore, he blames those who revealed the illegal nature of what he was doing:

"The existence of this secret program was revealed in media reports after being improperly given to news organizations," Bush said. "Unauthorized disclosure damages our national security and puts our nation at risk ... Revealing this information is illegal."

Great quote by Senator Russ Feingold in response to Bush's admission:

"The President's shocking admission that he authorized the National Security Agency to spy on American citizens, without going to a court and in violation of the Constitution and laws passed by Congress, further demonstrates the urgent need for these protections. The President believes that he has the power to override the laws that Congress has passed. This is not how our democratic system of government works. The President does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow. He is a president, not a king. On behalf of all Americans who believe in our constitutional system of government, I call on this Administration to stop this program immediately and to fully cooperate with congressional inquiries and investigations. We have had enough of an Administration that puts itself above the law and the Constitution."

It's nice to see that some Senators will call out this President. Also, they've at least temporarily stalled that abomination called the Patriot Act

Sometimes I think the tide is turning. Yesterday, we had a great conversation with a lady parked next to us at Target. She had 2 bumper stickers on her car: an Amnesty International sticker and a sticker that said "Not my president, still my country". Obviously a likeminded person and she complimented us on our bumper stickers. A few years ago, you could not see these kinds of conversations going on ... at least not in conservative Arizona. She also commented that you just don't see as many Bush stickers as you used to.

Eugene McCarthy - William Proxmire

His time was then — and now
Former Senator Proxmire dies at 90

This week saw the passing of two enigmatic Midwestern Democrats of some renown.

The first, Eugene McCarthy, died on December 10th. McCarthy, a longtime congressman and Senator from Minnesota, is best known for challenging Lyndon Johnson in 1968 for the nomination of the Democratic Party. His anti-war stance was popular and ulitmately probably led to Johnson not seeking the nomination.

The second, William Proxmire, died today. Some bit of trivia (courtesy of Wikipedia):

• In his last two Senate campaigns of 1976 and 1982, Proxmire refused to take any campaign contributions, and spent on each less than $200 out of his own pocket — to cover the expenses related to filing for re-election.
• Senator Proxmire was elected to fill the remainder of the term vacated due to the death of Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1957
• Proxmire was famous for issuing his Golden Fleece Awards identifying wasteful government spending between 1975 and 1988. The first one was awarded in 1975 to the National Science Foundation for funding an $84,000 study on "why people fall in love." Proxmire had an unfortunate tendency to issue his awards to basic science projects that led to important breakthroughs, such as the Aspen Movie Map. He was heavily criticized for this by journalist Stewart Brand, but Proxmire later apologized for several of those, including SETI.
• From 1967 until 1986, Proxmire gave daily speeches noting the necessity of ratifying The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. After giving this speech every day that the Senate was in session for 20 years, resulting in 3,211 speeches, the convention was ratified by the U.S. Senate by a vote on 83-11 on February 11, 1986.
  

Both of their lives lend some perspective on the current state of politics. McCarthy's defiant anti-war stance is remarkably similar to John Murtha's. History proved McCarthy correct and will ultimately prove Murtha correct.

Proxmire's tireless positions against rampant spending predate similar positions by politicians like John McCain and fellow Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold. His stance against genocide foreshadowed Rwanda and Darfur.

"Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important."

"This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but to come to the aid of their country." -- Eugene McCarthy

"Power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous."

"I have spent my career trying to get Congressmen to spend the people's money as if it were their own. But I have failed." -- William Proxmire