24 Feb. 2003/Monday - My birthday approaches (yawn***) and I feel like I AM getting older. What a drag. Oh well, maybe I'll suddenly have the blinders fall off my eyes and discover some of that ballyhooed wisdom they say comes with age. I could use a little wisdom, lord knows.
I wonder how I'm going to spend Friday when my 52nd year on the planet arrives. I know I'll be at work in the evening, but I wonder if any of my siblings will mark the occassion with a card, note or some other alert (i.e. cash - yea!)?
I've spent the whole day laying on the bed for an hour, then getting up to check the Internet for news, entertainment, e-mail, IM messages, write a few noodles and such.
It's ridiculous how little news there is about the people who died in the fire at that nightclub in Rhode Island, but how overblown the coverage is relative to the argument over permission. The band says it had permission, the nightclub owners deny it, and there's a video tape (you've seen it, yes?) showing other bands using pyrotechnics at the SAME club only weeks earlier which, in my mind, leans the argument toward the band's version of the tale. But what's the issue? Nearly 100 people died. Seems to me that would be at the forefront of the news stories, not legal wrangling about who said what!
22 Feb. 2003/Saturday (it is, isn't it?) - Ahha! I'm awake. Whoo! I laid down for a short nap and zoomed past short into a four-hour marathon. And now it's time to go to A. Fill the tank with gas; B. Buy cereal at the grocers (quaint term isn't it ...); C. Pick up a pack of cigs (oh yea, I'm one of THEM ...); and D. Drive to work using a different route so I can avoid the cop who stopped me yesterday and told me to get my driver license updated to reflect my new address. "Yessir, officer, I'll to it today," I humbly replied. Yea right! Like I've got time or money to take care of that mundane bulls#@*. I don't think so.
I'm trying to figure out what I can do if the government - via Sallie Mae, the monster that owns my soul - will react when I tell it I can't pay the full monthly installment on my college loan. Holy Smokes! I mean these guys can take your life away should they choose to do so, and I kind of like mine, thank you very much. But what can you do. I don't have the ducats to shell out so, unless I can give blood for the difference, I'm hoping the idiot (goes without saying) I reach on the telephone will be in good humor and push a computer button that allows me to catch up with my next paycheck. Otherwise, I'm - well, I don't know what I am - but it won't be good, of that I'm sure.
Now the phone company, blood-sucking vampires that it is, can usually be somewhat accommodating, so I feel somewhat more confident with regard to their response when I tell them I can send half the charge and the rest in two weeks.
If you, like me, are chained to the hellish gargoyle known as Sallie Mae because you decided it would be worthwhile to get a college education, despite the ball-busting debt load you'd incur as a result, my sympathy goes out to you. I know it's hard when you realize that the four years (yea, in my case it's just a bachelor's degree) you spent trying to memorize passages from "Tales of Zanzibar," and struggling to understand the Spanish verb-noun rule, that the job you land the pays about one-third the amount Sallie Mae wants you to send each month. Yea, it's hard. And when I'm carted off tightly wrapped in a straight-jacket because I couldn't take the stress, I can proudly point to the degree stashed behind the dirty clothes in my closet and say, "I earned that!"
What a f$@;(#-up system we have. What system? All of them! But especially the higher education system. It's designed for the rich. Those of us who have to resort to grants and loans (we, the great unwashed masses) - and despite what you might hear, unless you can work at the same time you're taking 15-semester hours and the job pays enough to meet the rent, food, gas, etc., you WILL NEED loans - it's designed that way, remember. And when the day comes you cross that stage to accept your diploma, that day will be the last freewheeling day of your life. Within 24 hours, unless you've got a job lined up you'll be sitting at the kitchen table, phone in hand, drops of sweat trickling from your nose, calling every potential employer you've mailed resumes to, hoping that one of them says those lovely words, "You're hired."
Ah, but then it really begins. The 'Real World' is not a show on MTV. And "Catch-22" was not fiction. The world swirls through space held in place by invisible strings attached to nothing. So why be surprised to learn that idiots actually rule? Hasn't it been so since time began? Rich idiots, or idiots who are friends with rich idiots. Without a truckload of cash you're about as powerful as a gnat on a rhinos' rump.
And so it goes. I wish you well. I wish you CASH!
19 Feb. 2003/Wednesday: Vengeance rides a pale horse, and vengeance is riding toward your town today. Hey, hey, hey. What you gonna say when the hot, red slug burns your life away? Ain't it strange the way the circle goes 'round and 'round and we're simply stuck on the merry-go-round without even a toe touching the ground?
Well, I've slipped off the solid rock of my mental mountain and slid into the valley of my heart's dark hour. Wondering why the political borders, imaginary all, separate the peoples of the planet from one another – and still it does. Newspapers, radios and televisions pour out the facts of horror and carnage in places near and far, yet none takes notice. Drunks still drive too fast and kill unsuspecting innocents; meth-freaks murder their mothers and fathers to pawn what goods they have to feed the demon craving gnawing at their bones; bad cops, bad people, bad moon rising o'er the tall church steeple. Dogs howling in the distant dark add a mournful song to the night wind's tune.
No place to run or hide, no thing to do but ride and ride. Another town, another state, another nation passing into oblivion. Riding relentlessly ever more. And no one's even keeping score.
Now's the time, here's the place and you'd best ride; there's no saving grace. Gloomy though this tome may be, it's nothing like reality. Hear well, my son and daughter dear, where thoughtless anger rules there follows fear. But fear is just a wispy dream without a form to frame its scheme. And fear means nothing, and nothing is its only being.
16 Feb. 2003/Sunday - Ah, Sunday. My day off. The one day I actually allow myself to do NOTHING! No Thing. I just lay about watching the tube, checking the Internet for tasty tidbits to stimulate my brain.
Right now I'm just doing this, typing while listening to "60 Minutes" talking about biochemical survival training by the U.S. military. Apparently many commanders in all branches of the service have allowed the issue to fall by the wayside. The troops need OJT but one commander says "You don't do OJT with this kind of thing, because this kind of attack will kill you."
Mike Wallace is doing his usual ambush-interview, slamming a Bush lackey with Army audit documents and she's visibly squirming. Yow! I feel bad for the military personnel in the Gulf region who're probably watching this episode of "60 Minutes." They've got to be feeling a bit kweezy (queasy, OK ...) about now. Rep. Congressman Christopher Shay says many of the chem-suits for military personnel were sold on eBay by the Pentagon. That's just plain weird!
I'm heart-broken! One of my favorite television shows, "Oz," is ending its run on Sunday 23 Feb. I rank it among the very best programs ever aired on the 'box.' Of course, for some, it's an acquired taste, primarily because the subject matter is gritty, in-your-face stories of murderers, racists, bigots, thieves, pederasts and psychopaths of every type - prison convicts.
I haven't quite caught on to "Six Feet Under," one of D's favorites. I like the idea of telling the story of a family whose legacy is a funeral home. Darkly humorous, the show has flashes of brilliance and moments of pure inspiration. But I missed too many episodes to know who's who or what's going on. So now HBO has dropped "The Sopranos" and "Oz," two of its best series. I wonder what they'll replace them with?
And not that it matters, but my sinuses are plugged! I can't breathe through my nose at all and, subsequently, my mouth tastes like a herd of buffalo crapped in it during a stampede.
It's not evening in beautiful Lubbock, Texas. Where the sunset flashes brightly, then quickly disappears. Wish this 'rock' in my stomach would do the same. And so it goes. With Sunday my first day off I'm getting my week days mixed up. It's difficult to keep all those days (there's seven of them, after all) in sequence, 'specially when one is half conscious most of the day.
Meantime, I'm waiting to hear from D to learn whether she's up to catching a flick or not. Personally, I'd just as soon like to lay about and drift off into a dream.
We'll see.
Blow your mind Crumb site!
Troopers putting on a chem/bio suit don't know if they're putting on a defective one or not. Seems there's a palpable widespread fear among troops in the field (Saudi Arabia). These reports are definitely necessary in order to put the Pentagon on notice that the public will know how its treating our military fighters. This woman, whoever she is, is not convincing at all. "We are prepared for the worst. We have worldclass equipment. Our young men and women know what to do," she said. But Wallace says "no, they do not know what to do." Spooky, but not surprising. God help those men and women who will be fighting in Iraq if Saddam unleashes a biochemical attack against them.
Urp! 'Scuse me. My stomach is gurgling. It's been a very lazy day for me. Tomorrow, on the other hand, will be busy. I've scheduled a tune-up for the car, a search for a pair of earrings that go with a necklace I gave D for Christmas, and laundry. And so it goes. Life is a repeating cycle of cleaning, get dirty, clean again. And that applies to almost anything one can think of, I think.
So I'm thinking about a nighttime flick. I don't know. I guess I'll check with D and see if she's up for sitting through a movie. There are so many out that I'd love to see right now, but I haven't been able to afford going. But my tax refund finally came in so I have a few dollars for entertainment. Hallalujah. Have a good life. Ciao.
Just a little taste of R. Crumb
15 Feb. 2003/Saturday – "Horribly tragic. Completely wasteful. And very difficult for the free-diving community to accept." Deep diver (First name unknown) Streeter, talking about the death of another deep diver.
What Ms. Streeter was saying is that people who try to push the limits of any frontier place themselves in peril, but with proper training, informed reasoning and self-awareness, one ought to be able to survive the effort.
I don't know about that, but I'm so glad I found a couple of Web sites that offer R. Crumb artwork. Crumb influenced my life when I was but a dweeb rambling the roads of America in the 1960s. Arriving in Berkeley, Calif., one day after a police officer killed an unarmed protester in "Peoples' Park," I found clumps of people haranguing the U.S. government, the local police and, in general, the heavy hand of law, which these 'radicals' believed created a repressive atmosphere – if not an outright threat to the freedom of life.
I do not know how to describe the electrical chaos humming in the air that mild, sunny day when I walked up University Avenue to Telegraph Avenue, where the intersection of the two mark the entrance to the campus of U.C. Berkeley.
Over there stood a bearded, long-haired guy on a milk crate (you know, the plastic, honey-comb configured squares that come in blue, red and sometimes white) who was lecturing a group of about 30 people (students mostly) on the nefarious plans revealed in the Nixon doctrine of bombing in Cambodia. Over there was a guy dressed in a suit and tie, shoes highly polished and a constant smile that never left his face, pontificating on the virtues of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon (the infamous 'moonies'), and on the steps of one of the campus libraries there stood a scruffy guy wearing a thread-bare coat that once resembled a classic London Fog overcoat, and he was passing around a clipboard that, if you signed your name and provided your birthdate and a $5 fee, became your ticket to legitimate clergy status. The Universal Life Church recruiter spoke of the benefits of becoming a listed member of the church clergy – you could perform marriage ceremonies, a cash cow for some, you could avoid the draft and not be prosecuted by the Department of Justice because you were a 'preacher' of the ULF and, as such, exempt. LIterally more than 1,000 students of all colors and ethnic background were creating tiny gravity bowls that sucked passers-by into their slippery slump if one were inclined to listen. So much dialogue, so much ranting and spittle-laced rhetoric screaming for attention. It was intoxicating, exciting and thoroughly disorienting. I had just hitchhiked across the nation from Casper, Wyoming, and man, was I 'green!'
But the times were alive, vibrant and pulsing with high energy. I just didn't have a clue.
And then there was the Shattuck Hotel, a roach-infested dump rising from the ground to eight or nine floors above the street aand encompassing nearly a full square block.. I met 'Bat-cave' Butch and his aging free-love girlfriend (what was her name???) and he dragged my road buddy and me to the musty, funky hotel to assist us in renting a room, which we did, using the last $15 between us for a week's worth of shelter. That was where I learned that ALL pillows and mattresses are inhabited by dust mites, those nearly-microscopic critters that clean up our shedded, crusty flesh and nibble on our eyelashes and nether regions. Some of the folks we met had been living a The Shattuck Hotel for decades. Some were broken writers, musicians, painters and poets. Some were, as was my case, freshly arrived, wide-eyed 'boys.'
One might think that I've got a point here, but one would be sadly mistaken. I was sitting here scratching my nether region ... and remembered the shock of learning that bedbugs DO actually exist! While pondering this unraveled mystery something indefinable pulsated in the California air that fall day. I realized that my life was a burning fuse attached to a colorfully-wrapped package of undetermined origin and unexposed material that could just as well explode as it might burst forth with tulips, butterflies or scaly, green lizards.
14 Feb. 2003/Friday: Happy Valentine's Day! Hope everyone has someone to love - or at least someone to hang with.
I can't figure out why one of my blogs has blocked further entries. I know. Read the "Help" section. But who has time to figure out the nuances of this technical stuff when one only wants to scribble (so to speak) a few thoughts in the ether?
And I keep forgetting not to hit the 'tab' key, dammit. Oh well. Insurance is going up, up, up and benefits are falling faster than Niagra Falls. It really burns me up that I'm paying more for less and that trend continues. Seems to me that insurance companies are greedy, heartless monsters who make money off illness and inevitable suffering. Jerkoffs!
My buddy, Andy, has moved to California and is working for Habitat for Humanity. I'm impressed! Not many people dedicate themselves to helping others - even if it is for pay. Altruism is scarce as hen's teeth in this country, far as I can see.
But that's just my opinion.
Civil disobedience is getting a bad rap again. People who disagree with the Bushmeister's venomous bent toward Iraq are branded unpatriotic, liberal fools. But I think people who swallow the shallow bits of illogical rationales that the administration offers up to support war are brain-dead morons. God bless America - indeed!
We're going to need divine intervention to survive Bushorama's term (please let it be just one ...). The budget is dragging the nation down the tubes, passing the bill on to the next generation or sooner, international diplomacy is a joke - though not funny - and the only thing possessing el presidente's mind is war with Saddam. And yea, right, it couldn't be because Saddam tried to have daddy knocked off. Naw. Couldn't be that personal and that selfish. Hmmm?
At any rate, hello young lovers wherever you are. May you find stars in her eyes and wings in his heart. I'm out of here.
11 Feb. 2003/Tuesday
"LIGHT"
Soft dimpling of flesh
in fingertip breezes,
bending to rhythms rising from deep within our embrace.
The meat of our bodies
quivers - the beginning
of subtle electrical frenzy -
the magnetic pull between us
winds tighter and tighter,
threatening to break my spine
in ecstatic convulsion.
Our inner being fuses in a brilliant
explosion!
Together we float
silently inward, no longer the same.
Our love
has seared the center of our being
and we are changed.
10 Feb. 2003/Monday - 8:26 p.m.
Whoo boy! I went to see one stinker of a film this afternoon. It was great because I was so bored I actually caught a few zzzzz's, waking up only when the screams started or the lighting on the stock dramatically changed. I can't recomment it, but if you're too tired to sleep (I'm sure we've all been there ...) then go see "Darkness Falls."
The premise goes like this: A woman who, just before the turn of the century, was kind to children, giving them gold coins for the loss of their baby teeth, became known among the townsfolk as the 'tooth fairy.' But because she was odd, when two boys who reportedly has visited her disappeared one day, the good townsfolk took the kindly old spinster and hanged her. With her dying breath, she cursed the town, proclaiming an ominous threat to bring deep sorrow to the inhabitants far into the future.
Sadly, the boys turned up the next day, healthy and unscathed. Now the story goes, the town collective conscience went underground, so to speak, and the whole affair was hidden from outsiders.
Flash forward to today. A little boy has lost a tooth and his father puts it under his pillow and, with a paternal mussing of hair, tells the boy not to peek when the tooth fairy comes to call. Predictably, the 'evil' spirit of the wronged spinster who, by the way, had somehow been horribly mutilated in a fire prior to her untimely death, pays the lad a visit and ... well, you can pretty much fill in the the rest, I'm sure.
But I wanted to wait to see the bevy of 'good' flicks out right now, e.g. "About Schmidt," and "The Hours" and "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," etc. with my love, D. But her daughter was sick and stayed home from school, so I chose to forego the better films so I could wait and see them with her. (Ain't love grand?)
Well, Saturday night, my last night of the workweek before a two-day break, I got into an argument with Ted, one of the several copy editors. He was adament about John Ashcroft's trustworthiness despite the pervasive and unleased powers given him by the Congress a few months after 9-11. I was talking about the second installment of the "Homeland Security Act," a bill that hasn't been introduced yet but which was leaked to a non-profit group based in D.C. (I think its called the Citizens for Public Integrity organization ... not sure). Well, the bill contains sections and clauses that broaden the all ready BROAD powers allotted to the Justice Department via the first Homeland Security Act. For example, one of the sections talks about 'secret arrests,' whereby agents of the Justice Department can, without warrants or probable cause, arrest anyone. I repeat, without probable cause, without warrants, without a judge or grand jury, the FBI or any agency controlled by Justice could arrest anyone without so much as an explanation even to Congress - not even to the Justice Committees of both Houses (it's a secret ...). Well, I was saying I find this kind of thinking troublesome and reminiscent of Stalin's Russia or Hitler's Germany.
Ted, ever the staunch conservative (to the point of deficit-thinking) jumped up and asked, "Why are you so paranoid? Don't you think that the administration needs these powers to protect us against terrorists?"
Once he said that, the argument was on, to say the least. I asked him if he felt comfortable with a law enforcement organization that could, without probable cause, knock on his door one morning at, oh, say 3 a.m., and clap cuffs on him and drag him off to a non-descript building somewhere in Iowa or South Dakota? Ted's only response was, "Why would they do that to me?" Why, indeed.
It's certainly something to think about and I pray that the American public insists, through their representatives, that a public discussion is held to examine this confidential document that someone in the Justice Department had leaked to a news organization. The first Homeland Security Act took about 45 minutes - if that - to pass. And now, many of the senators and U.S. representatives admit that they never even read the document. They simply reacted to 9-11 and rubber-stamped a bill generated by the Bush administration. Patriotism? Or just plain stupidity? It seems to me that our elected officials have a responsibility to examine ALL legislation that comes before them. But that's just me.
And while I'm at it, I want to say "Howdy" to my friend Mike in San Antonio. Hope you note the dates on this BLOG, Mike. As you can see, I've posted more often than you thought.
MTK
8 Feb. 2003/Saturday - Still working. Another night at the copy desk ahead and I'll be yearning to be out - just out. I'm so tired and disgruntled about my 'desk,' but it don't mean a thing.
Another wave of laws are about to be pushed through the witless Congress and more civil rights are going to disappear, and no one is going to make a peep about it.
It's a frightening time to live in - here and now - but it's not worth the loss of one Constitutional right to have the government "protect" me from terrorists. Far as I'm concerned, if we give Ashcroft further leeway he'll be "der Fuhrer" not just in name but in fact! I cannot believe how quickly the nation's lawmakers passed the so-called 'Homeland Security Act.' No questions asked. No public discussion. They dropped the ball and signed off on a bill that gave the Justice Department broad powers, so many powers, in fact, that not even Congress can find out what the department is doing. It's now officially law that the Justice Department (Ashcroft) answers to no one. There's been a complete disconnect between Congress and the executive branch and the American people sat stupified, submissive and silent and let it happen. This country doesn't need to worry about losing to terrorists. It's going to implode from the inside. The damn terrorists, despots and tyrants of the world can just sit back and watch as our country, and the freedoms so many died for, is ground up and tossed out with the bathwater unless people take notice and ACT!
I don't want to rant, but it's truly a scary thing to know that the Justice Department could read this BLOG and, for any reason it decides to to use, arrest me and rake my life over hot coals. Much of what the department has done thus far has been a waste of taxpayers' money and a waste of time.
There has to be a limit to the number of freedoms we're willing to surrender in the name of protection.
But that's just me and what do I know?
And so it goes. And so I go. Adios.
6 Feb. 2003/Thursday
Well, I'll admit that Secretary of State Colin Powell made a strong presentation yesterday, but I won't go so far as to say I'm convinced that we should go to war with Iraq. While the intercepted phone conversations were chilling and certainly suggestive of sneaky behavior, I don't think anyone believes that Saddam has ever been forthcoming or honest. So there was little surprise there. I'll bet the individuals whose voices were heard on those intercepts are sweating bullets today - if they're still breathing. I'm sure Saddam has probably given orders to kill them and their families. Yes, I think Saddam is a despicable character, a murderer and a tyrant. But we've got a few of our own who could give Saddam a run for the 'golden ring,' so to speak.
Of course, the French and the Germans were predictably limp-wristed in their responses to Powell's presentation, but even Republican members of Congress were not overwhelmed with conviction about the evidence amounting to a basis for war (see New York Times article online today). I'm still leary of the so-called al-Qaida (how many ways are there to spell al-Qaeda - Qaida ...?) connection. Harper's Weekly reported a month ago that an al-Qaida operative DID recuperate in a Baghdad hospital from wounds he received during the Afghanistan campaign. But the article went on to report that, once the 'bad guy' was discharged from the hospital he disappeared and no one, at least none of the FBI or CIA sources the reporter contacted, could say with certainty that he remained in Baghdad.
It still seems to me that there's an economic-political agenda at work here, although I wouldn't presume to claim any facts to support that assertion. It's just a suspicion.
But if the administration can launch a war based solely on suspicion then we all should be very worried! I am cognizant of the statements Powell made about Iraq's deception but the conclusions drawn from a few snippets of radio conversations and satellite photos are not necessarily concrete evidence for me. However, I'll assume that everything that's been claimed by the Bush administration is true. Is war really necessary? That's where I'm stuck. Does Iraq - even an Iraq armed with weapons of mass destruction (many countries have them) - really present a clear and imminent danger to the United States? The evidence presented yesterday did nothing to address that question and it leaves me struggling to find an answer.
In the end, it appears that we (the U.S.) are determined to punish Iraq, whether the rest of the world agrees with our assessments or not. I can only hope that when we move, as few people as possible are killed and that the action doesn't lead to a wider conflagration throughout the Middel East. My fear is that an attack on Iraq could play right into the hands of Osama bin Laden. Would that we could 'surgically' remove Saddam (and bin Laden - especially bin Laden!), I think that no one would raise a fuss about THAT.
Ah well. Life goes on.
Here's a Web site that might put a grin on your face:
Doonesbury
Soapbox full of fleas
So it's Monday, 8:16 p.m. and I've got a late date with D to see a flick - on her! Woohoo! Can't beat that offer.
My back is aching from sitting in this damn chair for so long and I've got to get under some hot water to sooth out the kinks in my shoulders.
I feel like I've got an icepick stuck in the middle of my back - ouch!
Did you see last night's premiere of "Kingpin?" I thought it was really well done. D likened it to the early "Sopranos" episodes, when that show was edgy and over the top. It has a gritty appeal, like a Elmore Leonard novel.
Time for me to get wet. I wish you good-night and farewell.
4 Feb. 2003 - 9:12 a.m.
I'm listening to Sean Hannity on the radio yesterday and, I don't want to get into a rant here, but really, can there be a more ill-informed, narrow-minded person on the air (besides Rush (Wide Load) Limbaugh? Senor Hannity has a list of 'buzz words' he refers to whenever he's confronted by ANYONE who disagrees with him. "You liberals, why can't you get it through your heads ..." and "Let me tell you why ..." and "Evil is evil and some people just don't understand that."
I found myself laughing (sadly) at Hannity's routine. His itinerary - cheerleader for the right-wing Republican platform - is so transparent and so simple-minded it's ridiculous, to my way of thinking, that people actually take this guy seriously.
Somehow (I suppose because he's on the radio and that fact gives him 'credibility') many people have elevated Hannity to near sainthood. The saccharine praise that oozes through the bandwidth whenever an adoring fan calls him on-air borders hero worship.
Ugh! Despite the FACT that many of President Bush's claims about Iraq have been oblique at best, and downright obfuscation at worst, Hannity has made it his own private crusade to demonize Saddam Hussein and convince the listening public that the U.S. is in grave danger of attack from Iraq. For example, Bush claims that Iraq is involved with al Quaida - a claim refuted by the FBI, the CIA and several other spy agencies; there's been no conclusive proof that Iraq is "linked" to al Quaida.
And the issue of weapons of mass destruction is, at best, a BIG maybe. Maybe Iraq has stockpiled lethal microbes; maybe Iraq has developed a nuclear weapon (though many U.S. FBI and CIA agents refute even this claim). A simple Internet search using 'Iraq' as the search target will bring forth dozens of articles about this issue, and reading those articles ought to convince anyone who THINKS that there's room for doubt about the scope of the president's honesty with regards to this question. Even if Iraq has weapons of mass destruction - and I don't doubt it does - Iraq has not moved aggressively against the United States in years and it would be hard-pressed to create a serious threat to this nation. It takes a wild leap of imagination to put Iraq in the crosshairs because of its ability to mount a successful attack on the United States. And since Bush has made it clear that he's willing to use nuclear weapons himself (some irony there, I'd think) if Iraq was found to be a participant in any action like the awful destruction and death brought to this nation on 9-11, I doubt that even Saddam, mad tyrant that he is, would risk complete annihilation. And even if he did - that at least would be a valid response (I suppose) from this country. What is happening now is insane! Bush is targeting a high-profile despot and forgetting about the perpetrator of 9-11. Anyone heard Mr. Bush mention that murderous terrorist lately? Anyone remember his name? I'm talking about the guy who funded, designed and pulled off 9-11. But Osama bin Laden has fallen off the U.S. radar, it seems, and one wonders why?
Meanwhile, Hannity ignores facts, evidence and logic and continues flapping his metaphoric pom-poms while foaming at the mouth and chanting "Kill Saddam, kill Saddam," as if this unreasoned babble is righteous and sensible. Apparently, Hannity KNOWS he is right and anyone who disagrees with him is WRONG.
Well, I'm concerned about the fact that no proof of a threat from Iraq has been put before the American people - and it's been months now since Bush began beating the war drum. Not one tidbit of factual information that points to a need for military action against Iraq has been offered, yet many seem sure that war is the only option vis a vis Iraq, as if war will solve the problem of terrorism. Weird! Actually, very weird! But I suggest that everyone ought to listen to Hannity and his ilk. These are the people who sway public opinion with half-truths, bias, obfuscation and twisted logic. Hannity, Limbaugh and others offer a valuable lesson about how NOT to observe the world and its political horizons.
I wonder how I'm going to spend Friday when my 52nd year on the planet arrives. I know I'll be at work in the evening, but I wonder if any of my siblings will mark the occassion with a card, note or some other alert (i.e. cash - yea!)?
I've spent the whole day laying on the bed for an hour, then getting up to check the Internet for news, entertainment, e-mail, IM messages, write a few noodles and such.
It's ridiculous how little news there is about the people who died in the fire at that nightclub in Rhode Island, but how overblown the coverage is relative to the argument over permission. The band says it had permission, the nightclub owners deny it, and there's a video tape (you've seen it, yes?) showing other bands using pyrotechnics at the SAME club only weeks earlier which, in my mind, leans the argument toward the band's version of the tale. But what's the issue? Nearly 100 people died. Seems to me that would be at the forefront of the news stories, not legal wrangling about who said what!
22 Feb. 2003/Saturday (it is, isn't it?) - Ahha! I'm awake. Whoo! I laid down for a short nap and zoomed past short into a four-hour marathon. And now it's time to go to A. Fill the tank with gas; B. Buy cereal at the grocers (quaint term isn't it ...); C. Pick up a pack of cigs (oh yea, I'm one of THEM ...); and D. Drive to work using a different route so I can avoid the cop who stopped me yesterday and told me to get my driver license updated to reflect my new address. "Yessir, officer, I'll to it today," I humbly replied. Yea right! Like I've got time or money to take care of that mundane bulls#@*. I don't think so.
I'm trying to figure out what I can do if the government - via Sallie Mae, the monster that owns my soul - will react when I tell it I can't pay the full monthly installment on my college loan. Holy Smokes! I mean these guys can take your life away should they choose to do so, and I kind of like mine, thank you very much. But what can you do. I don't have the ducats to shell out so, unless I can give blood for the difference, I'm hoping the idiot (goes without saying) I reach on the telephone will be in good humor and push a computer button that allows me to catch up with my next paycheck. Otherwise, I'm - well, I don't know what I am - but it won't be good, of that I'm sure.
Now the phone company, blood-sucking vampires that it is, can usually be somewhat accommodating, so I feel somewhat more confident with regard to their response when I tell them I can send half the charge and the rest in two weeks.
If you, like me, are chained to the hellish gargoyle known as Sallie Mae because you decided it would be worthwhile to get a college education, despite the ball-busting debt load you'd incur as a result, my sympathy goes out to you. I know it's hard when you realize that the four years (yea, in my case it's just a bachelor's degree) you spent trying to memorize passages from "Tales of Zanzibar," and struggling to understand the Spanish verb-noun rule, that the job you land the pays about one-third the amount Sallie Mae wants you to send each month. Yea, it's hard. And when I'm carted off tightly wrapped in a straight-jacket because I couldn't take the stress, I can proudly point to the degree stashed behind the dirty clothes in my closet and say, "I earned that!"
What a f$@;(#-up system we have. What system? All of them! But especially the higher education system. It's designed for the rich. Those of us who have to resort to grants and loans (we, the great unwashed masses) - and despite what you might hear, unless you can work at the same time you're taking 15-semester hours and the job pays enough to meet the rent, food, gas, etc., you WILL NEED loans - it's designed that way, remember. And when the day comes you cross that stage to accept your diploma, that day will be the last freewheeling day of your life. Within 24 hours, unless you've got a job lined up you'll be sitting at the kitchen table, phone in hand, drops of sweat trickling from your nose, calling every potential employer you've mailed resumes to, hoping that one of them says those lovely words, "You're hired."
Ah, but then it really begins. The 'Real World' is not a show on MTV. And "Catch-22" was not fiction. The world swirls through space held in place by invisible strings attached to nothing. So why be surprised to learn that idiots actually rule? Hasn't it been so since time began? Rich idiots, or idiots who are friends with rich idiots. Without a truckload of cash you're about as powerful as a gnat on a rhinos' rump.
And so it goes. I wish you well. I wish you CASH!
19 Feb. 2003/Wednesday: Vengeance rides a pale horse, and vengeance is riding toward your town today. Hey, hey, hey. What you gonna say when the hot, red slug burns your life away? Ain't it strange the way the circle goes 'round and 'round and we're simply stuck on the merry-go-round without even a toe touching the ground?
Well, I've slipped off the solid rock of my mental mountain and slid into the valley of my heart's dark hour. Wondering why the political borders, imaginary all, separate the peoples of the planet from one another – and still it does. Newspapers, radios and televisions pour out the facts of horror and carnage in places near and far, yet none takes notice. Drunks still drive too fast and kill unsuspecting innocents; meth-freaks murder their mothers and fathers to pawn what goods they have to feed the demon craving gnawing at their bones; bad cops, bad people, bad moon rising o'er the tall church steeple. Dogs howling in the distant dark add a mournful song to the night wind's tune.
No place to run or hide, no thing to do but ride and ride. Another town, another state, another nation passing into oblivion. Riding relentlessly ever more. And no one's even keeping score.
Now's the time, here's the place and you'd best ride; there's no saving grace. Gloomy though this tome may be, it's nothing like reality. Hear well, my son and daughter dear, where thoughtless anger rules there follows fear. But fear is just a wispy dream without a form to frame its scheme. And fear means nothing, and nothing is its only being.
16 Feb. 2003/Sunday - Ah, Sunday. My day off. The one day I actually allow myself to do NOTHING! No Thing. I just lay about watching the tube, checking the Internet for tasty tidbits to stimulate my brain.
Right now I'm just doing this, typing while listening to "60 Minutes" talking about biochemical survival training by the U.S. military. Apparently many commanders in all branches of the service have allowed the issue to fall by the wayside. The troops need OJT but one commander says "You don't do OJT with this kind of thing, because this kind of attack will kill you."
Mike Wallace is doing his usual ambush-interview, slamming a Bush lackey with Army audit documents and she's visibly squirming. Yow! I feel bad for the military personnel in the Gulf region who're probably watching this episode of "60 Minutes." They've got to be feeling a bit kweezy (queasy, OK ...) about now. Rep. Congressman Christopher Shay says many of the chem-suits for military personnel were sold on eBay by the Pentagon. That's just plain weird!
I'm heart-broken! One of my favorite television shows, "Oz," is ending its run on Sunday 23 Feb. I rank it among the very best programs ever aired on the 'box.' Of course, for some, it's an acquired taste, primarily because the subject matter is gritty, in-your-face stories of murderers, racists, bigots, thieves, pederasts and psychopaths of every type - prison convicts.
I haven't quite caught on to "Six Feet Under," one of D's favorites. I like the idea of telling the story of a family whose legacy is a funeral home. Darkly humorous, the show has flashes of brilliance and moments of pure inspiration. But I missed too many episodes to know who's who or what's going on. So now HBO has dropped "The Sopranos" and "Oz," two of its best series. I wonder what they'll replace them with?
And not that it matters, but my sinuses are plugged! I can't breathe through my nose at all and, subsequently, my mouth tastes like a herd of buffalo crapped in it during a stampede.
It's not evening in beautiful Lubbock, Texas. Where the sunset flashes brightly, then quickly disappears. Wish this 'rock' in my stomach would do the same. And so it goes. With Sunday my first day off I'm getting my week days mixed up. It's difficult to keep all those days (there's seven of them, after all) in sequence, 'specially when one is half conscious most of the day.
Meantime, I'm waiting to hear from D to learn whether she's up to catching a flick or not. Personally, I'd just as soon like to lay about and drift off into a dream.
We'll see.
Blow your mind Crumb site!
Troopers putting on a chem/bio suit don't know if they're putting on a defective one or not. Seems there's a palpable widespread fear among troops in the field (Saudi Arabia). These reports are definitely necessary in order to put the Pentagon on notice that the public will know how its treating our military fighters. This woman, whoever she is, is not convincing at all. "We are prepared for the worst. We have worldclass equipment. Our young men and women know what to do," she said. But Wallace says "no, they do not know what to do." Spooky, but not surprising. God help those men and women who will be fighting in Iraq if Saddam unleashes a biochemical attack against them.
Urp! 'Scuse me. My stomach is gurgling. It's been a very lazy day for me. Tomorrow, on the other hand, will be busy. I've scheduled a tune-up for the car, a search for a pair of earrings that go with a necklace I gave D for Christmas, and laundry. And so it goes. Life is a repeating cycle of cleaning, get dirty, clean again. And that applies to almost anything one can think of, I think.
So I'm thinking about a nighttime flick. I don't know. I guess I'll check with D and see if she's up for sitting through a movie. There are so many out that I'd love to see right now, but I haven't been able to afford going. But my tax refund finally came in so I have a few dollars for entertainment. Hallalujah. Have a good life. Ciao.
Just a little taste of R. Crumb
15 Feb. 2003/Saturday – "Horribly tragic. Completely wasteful. And very difficult for the free-diving community to accept." Deep diver (First name unknown) Streeter, talking about the death of another deep diver.
What Ms. Streeter was saying is that people who try to push the limits of any frontier place themselves in peril, but with proper training, informed reasoning and self-awareness, one ought to be able to survive the effort.
I don't know about that, but I'm so glad I found a couple of Web sites that offer R. Crumb artwork. Crumb influenced my life when I was but a dweeb rambling the roads of America in the 1960s. Arriving in Berkeley, Calif., one day after a police officer killed an unarmed protester in "Peoples' Park," I found clumps of people haranguing the U.S. government, the local police and, in general, the heavy hand of law, which these 'radicals' believed created a repressive atmosphere – if not an outright threat to the freedom of life.
I do not know how to describe the electrical chaos humming in the air that mild, sunny day when I walked up University Avenue to Telegraph Avenue, where the intersection of the two mark the entrance to the campus of U.C. Berkeley.
Over there stood a bearded, long-haired guy on a milk crate (you know, the plastic, honey-comb configured squares that come in blue, red and sometimes white) who was lecturing a group of about 30 people (students mostly) on the nefarious plans revealed in the Nixon doctrine of bombing in Cambodia. Over there was a guy dressed in a suit and tie, shoes highly polished and a constant smile that never left his face, pontificating on the virtues of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon (the infamous 'moonies'), and on the steps of one of the campus libraries there stood a scruffy guy wearing a thread-bare coat that once resembled a classic London Fog overcoat, and he was passing around a clipboard that, if you signed your name and provided your birthdate and a $5 fee, became your ticket to legitimate clergy status. The Universal Life Church recruiter spoke of the benefits of becoming a listed member of the church clergy – you could perform marriage ceremonies, a cash cow for some, you could avoid the draft and not be prosecuted by the Department of Justice because you were a 'preacher' of the ULF and, as such, exempt. LIterally more than 1,000 students of all colors and ethnic background were creating tiny gravity bowls that sucked passers-by into their slippery slump if one were inclined to listen. So much dialogue, so much ranting and spittle-laced rhetoric screaming for attention. It was intoxicating, exciting and thoroughly disorienting. I had just hitchhiked across the nation from Casper, Wyoming, and man, was I 'green!'
But the times were alive, vibrant and pulsing with high energy. I just didn't have a clue.
And then there was the Shattuck Hotel, a roach-infested dump rising from the ground to eight or nine floors above the street aand encompassing nearly a full square block.. I met 'Bat-cave' Butch and his aging free-love girlfriend (what was her name???) and he dragged my road buddy and me to the musty, funky hotel to assist us in renting a room, which we did, using the last $15 between us for a week's worth of shelter. That was where I learned that ALL pillows and mattresses are inhabited by dust mites, those nearly-microscopic critters that clean up our shedded, crusty flesh and nibble on our eyelashes and nether regions. Some of the folks we met had been living a The Shattuck Hotel for decades. Some were broken writers, musicians, painters and poets. Some were, as was my case, freshly arrived, wide-eyed 'boys.'
One might think that I've got a point here, but one would be sadly mistaken. I was sitting here scratching my nether region ... and remembered the shock of learning that bedbugs DO actually exist! While pondering this unraveled mystery something indefinable pulsated in the California air that fall day. I realized that my life was a burning fuse attached to a colorfully-wrapped package of undetermined origin and unexposed material that could just as well explode as it might burst forth with tulips, butterflies or scaly, green lizards.
14 Feb. 2003/Friday: Happy Valentine's Day! Hope everyone has someone to love - or at least someone to hang with.
I can't figure out why one of my blogs has blocked further entries. I know. Read the "Help" section. But who has time to figure out the nuances of this technical stuff when one only wants to scribble (so to speak) a few thoughts in the ether?
And I keep forgetting not to hit the 'tab' key, dammit. Oh well. Insurance is going up, up, up and benefits are falling faster than Niagra Falls. It really burns me up that I'm paying more for less and that trend continues. Seems to me that insurance companies are greedy, heartless monsters who make money off illness and inevitable suffering. Jerkoffs!
My buddy, Andy, has moved to California and is working for Habitat for Humanity. I'm impressed! Not many people dedicate themselves to helping others - even if it is for pay. Altruism is scarce as hen's teeth in this country, far as I can see.
But that's just my opinion.
Civil disobedience is getting a bad rap again. People who disagree with the Bushmeister's venomous bent toward Iraq are branded unpatriotic, liberal fools. But I think people who swallow the shallow bits of illogical rationales that the administration offers up to support war are brain-dead morons. God bless America - indeed!
We're going to need divine intervention to survive Bushorama's term (please let it be just one ...). The budget is dragging the nation down the tubes, passing the bill on to the next generation or sooner, international diplomacy is a joke - though not funny - and the only thing possessing el presidente's mind is war with Saddam. And yea, right, it couldn't be because Saddam tried to have daddy knocked off. Naw. Couldn't be that personal and that selfish. Hmmm?
At any rate, hello young lovers wherever you are. May you find stars in her eyes and wings in his heart. I'm out of here.
11 Feb. 2003/Tuesday
"LIGHT"
Soft dimpling of flesh
in fingertip breezes,
bending to rhythms rising from deep within our embrace.
The meat of our bodies
quivers - the beginning
of subtle electrical frenzy -
the magnetic pull between us
winds tighter and tighter,
threatening to break my spine
in ecstatic convulsion.
Our inner being fuses in a brilliant
explosion!
Together we float
silently inward, no longer the same.
Our love
has seared the center of our being
and we are changed.
10 Feb. 2003/Monday - 8:26 p.m.
Whoo boy! I went to see one stinker of a film this afternoon. It was great because I was so bored I actually caught a few zzzzz's, waking up only when the screams started or the lighting on the stock dramatically changed. I can't recomment it, but if you're too tired to sleep (I'm sure we've all been there ...) then go see "Darkness Falls."
The premise goes like this: A woman who, just before the turn of the century, was kind to children, giving them gold coins for the loss of their baby teeth, became known among the townsfolk as the 'tooth fairy.' But because she was odd, when two boys who reportedly has visited her disappeared one day, the good townsfolk took the kindly old spinster and hanged her. With her dying breath, she cursed the town, proclaiming an ominous threat to bring deep sorrow to the inhabitants far into the future.
Sadly, the boys turned up the next day, healthy and unscathed. Now the story goes, the town collective conscience went underground, so to speak, and the whole affair was hidden from outsiders.
Flash forward to today. A little boy has lost a tooth and his father puts it under his pillow and, with a paternal mussing of hair, tells the boy not to peek when the tooth fairy comes to call. Predictably, the 'evil' spirit of the wronged spinster who, by the way, had somehow been horribly mutilated in a fire prior to her untimely death, pays the lad a visit and ... well, you can pretty much fill in the the rest, I'm sure.
But I wanted to wait to see the bevy of 'good' flicks out right now, e.g. "About Schmidt," and "The Hours" and "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," etc. with my love, D. But her daughter was sick and stayed home from school, so I chose to forego the better films so I could wait and see them with her. (Ain't love grand?)
Well, Saturday night, my last night of the workweek before a two-day break, I got into an argument with Ted, one of the several copy editors. He was adament about John Ashcroft's trustworthiness despite the pervasive and unleased powers given him by the Congress a few months after 9-11. I was talking about the second installment of the "Homeland Security Act," a bill that hasn't been introduced yet but which was leaked to a non-profit group based in D.C. (I think its called the Citizens for Public Integrity organization ... not sure). Well, the bill contains sections and clauses that broaden the all ready BROAD powers allotted to the Justice Department via the first Homeland Security Act. For example, one of the sections talks about 'secret arrests,' whereby agents of the Justice Department can, without warrants or probable cause, arrest anyone. I repeat, without probable cause, without warrants, without a judge or grand jury, the FBI or any agency controlled by Justice could arrest anyone without so much as an explanation even to Congress - not even to the Justice Committees of both Houses (it's a secret ...). Well, I was saying I find this kind of thinking troublesome and reminiscent of Stalin's Russia or Hitler's Germany.
Ted, ever the staunch conservative (to the point of deficit-thinking) jumped up and asked, "Why are you so paranoid? Don't you think that the administration needs these powers to protect us against terrorists?"
Once he said that, the argument was on, to say the least. I asked him if he felt comfortable with a law enforcement organization that could, without probable cause, knock on his door one morning at, oh, say 3 a.m., and clap cuffs on him and drag him off to a non-descript building somewhere in Iowa or South Dakota? Ted's only response was, "Why would they do that to me?" Why, indeed.
It's certainly something to think about and I pray that the American public insists, through their representatives, that a public discussion is held to examine this confidential document that someone in the Justice Department had leaked to a news organization. The first Homeland Security Act took about 45 minutes - if that - to pass. And now, many of the senators and U.S. representatives admit that they never even read the document. They simply reacted to 9-11 and rubber-stamped a bill generated by the Bush administration. Patriotism? Or just plain stupidity? It seems to me that our elected officials have a responsibility to examine ALL legislation that comes before them. But that's just me.
And while I'm at it, I want to say "Howdy" to my friend Mike in San Antonio. Hope you note the dates on this BLOG, Mike. As you can see, I've posted more often than you thought.
MTK
8 Feb. 2003/Saturday - Still working. Another night at the copy desk ahead and I'll be yearning to be out - just out. I'm so tired and disgruntled about my 'desk,' but it don't mean a thing.
Another wave of laws are about to be pushed through the witless Congress and more civil rights are going to disappear, and no one is going to make a peep about it.
It's a frightening time to live in - here and now - but it's not worth the loss of one Constitutional right to have the government "protect" me from terrorists. Far as I'm concerned, if we give Ashcroft further leeway he'll be "der Fuhrer" not just in name but in fact! I cannot believe how quickly the nation's lawmakers passed the so-called 'Homeland Security Act.' No questions asked. No public discussion. They dropped the ball and signed off on a bill that gave the Justice Department broad powers, so many powers, in fact, that not even Congress can find out what the department is doing. It's now officially law that the Justice Department (Ashcroft) answers to no one. There's been a complete disconnect between Congress and the executive branch and the American people sat stupified, submissive and silent and let it happen. This country doesn't need to worry about losing to terrorists. It's going to implode from the inside. The damn terrorists, despots and tyrants of the world can just sit back and watch as our country, and the freedoms so many died for, is ground up and tossed out with the bathwater unless people take notice and ACT!
I don't want to rant, but it's truly a scary thing to know that the Justice Department could read this BLOG and, for any reason it decides to to use, arrest me and rake my life over hot coals. Much of what the department has done thus far has been a waste of taxpayers' money and a waste of time.
There has to be a limit to the number of freedoms we're willing to surrender in the name of protection.
But that's just me and what do I know?
And so it goes. And so I go. Adios.
6 Feb. 2003/Thursday
Well, I'll admit that Secretary of State Colin Powell made a strong presentation yesterday, but I won't go so far as to say I'm convinced that we should go to war with Iraq. While the intercepted phone conversations were chilling and certainly suggestive of sneaky behavior, I don't think anyone believes that Saddam has ever been forthcoming or honest. So there was little surprise there. I'll bet the individuals whose voices were heard on those intercepts are sweating bullets today - if they're still breathing. I'm sure Saddam has probably given orders to kill them and their families. Yes, I think Saddam is a despicable character, a murderer and a tyrant. But we've got a few of our own who could give Saddam a run for the 'golden ring,' so to speak.
Of course, the French and the Germans were predictably limp-wristed in their responses to Powell's presentation, but even Republican members of Congress were not overwhelmed with conviction about the evidence amounting to a basis for war (see New York Times article online today). I'm still leary of the so-called al-Qaida (how many ways are there to spell al-Qaeda - Qaida ...?) connection. Harper's Weekly reported a month ago that an al-Qaida operative DID recuperate in a Baghdad hospital from wounds he received during the Afghanistan campaign. But the article went on to report that, once the 'bad guy' was discharged from the hospital he disappeared and no one, at least none of the FBI or CIA sources the reporter contacted, could say with certainty that he remained in Baghdad.
It still seems to me that there's an economic-political agenda at work here, although I wouldn't presume to claim any facts to support that assertion. It's just a suspicion.
But if the administration can launch a war based solely on suspicion then we all should be very worried! I am cognizant of the statements Powell made about Iraq's deception but the conclusions drawn from a few snippets of radio conversations and satellite photos are not necessarily concrete evidence for me. However, I'll assume that everything that's been claimed by the Bush administration is true. Is war really necessary? That's where I'm stuck. Does Iraq - even an Iraq armed with weapons of mass destruction (many countries have them) - really present a clear and imminent danger to the United States? The evidence presented yesterday did nothing to address that question and it leaves me struggling to find an answer.
In the end, it appears that we (the U.S.) are determined to punish Iraq, whether the rest of the world agrees with our assessments or not. I can only hope that when we move, as few people as possible are killed and that the action doesn't lead to a wider conflagration throughout the Middel East. My fear is that an attack on Iraq could play right into the hands of Osama bin Laden. Would that we could 'surgically' remove Saddam (and bin Laden - especially bin Laden!), I think that no one would raise a fuss about THAT.
Ah well. Life goes on.
Here's a Web site that might put a grin on your face:
Doonesbury
Soapbox full of fleas
So it's Monday, 8:16 p.m. and I've got a late date with D to see a flick - on her! Woohoo! Can't beat that offer.
My back is aching from sitting in this damn chair for so long and I've got to get under some hot water to sooth out the kinks in my shoulders.
I feel like I've got an icepick stuck in the middle of my back - ouch!
Did you see last night's premiere of "Kingpin?" I thought it was really well done. D likened it to the early "Sopranos" episodes, when that show was edgy and over the top. It has a gritty appeal, like a Elmore Leonard novel.
Time for me to get wet. I wish you good-night and farewell.
4 Feb. 2003 - 9:12 a.m.
I'm listening to Sean Hannity on the radio yesterday and, I don't want to get into a rant here, but really, can there be a more ill-informed, narrow-minded person on the air (besides Rush (Wide Load) Limbaugh? Senor Hannity has a list of 'buzz words' he refers to whenever he's confronted by ANYONE who disagrees with him. "You liberals, why can't you get it through your heads ..." and "Let me tell you why ..." and "Evil is evil and some people just don't understand that."
I found myself laughing (sadly) at Hannity's routine. His itinerary - cheerleader for the right-wing Republican platform - is so transparent and so simple-minded it's ridiculous, to my way of thinking, that people actually take this guy seriously.
Somehow (I suppose because he's on the radio and that fact gives him 'credibility') many people have elevated Hannity to near sainthood. The saccharine praise that oozes through the bandwidth whenever an adoring fan calls him on-air borders hero worship.
Ugh! Despite the FACT that many of President Bush's claims about Iraq have been oblique at best, and downright obfuscation at worst, Hannity has made it his own private crusade to demonize Saddam Hussein and convince the listening public that the U.S. is in grave danger of attack from Iraq. For example, Bush claims that Iraq is involved with al Quaida - a claim refuted by the FBI, the CIA and several other spy agencies; there's been no conclusive proof that Iraq is "linked" to al Quaida.
And the issue of weapons of mass destruction is, at best, a BIG maybe. Maybe Iraq has stockpiled lethal microbes; maybe Iraq has developed a nuclear weapon (though many U.S. FBI and CIA agents refute even this claim). A simple Internet search using 'Iraq' as the search target will bring forth dozens of articles about this issue, and reading those articles ought to convince anyone who THINKS that there's room for doubt about the scope of the president's honesty with regards to this question. Even if Iraq has weapons of mass destruction - and I don't doubt it does - Iraq has not moved aggressively against the United States in years and it would be hard-pressed to create a serious threat to this nation. It takes a wild leap of imagination to put Iraq in the crosshairs because of its ability to mount a successful attack on the United States. And since Bush has made it clear that he's willing to use nuclear weapons himself (some irony there, I'd think) if Iraq was found to be a participant in any action like the awful destruction and death brought to this nation on 9-11, I doubt that even Saddam, mad tyrant that he is, would risk complete annihilation. And even if he did - that at least would be a valid response (I suppose) from this country. What is happening now is insane! Bush is targeting a high-profile despot and forgetting about the perpetrator of 9-11. Anyone heard Mr. Bush mention that murderous terrorist lately? Anyone remember his name? I'm talking about the guy who funded, designed and pulled off 9-11. But Osama bin Laden has fallen off the U.S. radar, it seems, and one wonders why?
Meanwhile, Hannity ignores facts, evidence and logic and continues flapping his metaphoric pom-poms while foaming at the mouth and chanting "Kill Saddam, kill Saddam," as if this unreasoned babble is righteous and sensible. Apparently, Hannity KNOWS he is right and anyone who disagrees with him is WRONG.
Well, I'm concerned about the fact that no proof of a threat from Iraq has been put before the American people - and it's been months now since Bush began beating the war drum. Not one tidbit of factual information that points to a need for military action against Iraq has been offered, yet many seem sure that war is the only option vis a vis Iraq, as if war will solve the problem of terrorism. Weird! Actually, very weird! But I suggest that everyone ought to listen to Hannity and his ilk. These are the people who sway public opinion with half-truths, bias, obfuscation and twisted logic. Hannity, Limbaugh and others offer a valuable lesson about how NOT to observe the world and its political horizons.
posted by mogaffblog9 at
8:21 PM
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