Did Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva misspeak when he said recently that it's a pity that Fidel Castro did not democratize the island while "he was still alive"? Or did he inadvertently blurt out a secret that only friends of the Cuban regime are supposed to know?
Lula has corrected himself. "'E's not dead, merely resting . . . pinin' for the fijords."
But the rumor mills are in overdrive since the utterance of those four little words, in part because the last time Cubans were shown proof of life was more than a month ago, and the patient looked pretty bad. "Psst! You know, they nailed him to his prech."
Whenever the old man finally passes away, Faster, please.
a public statement is likely to be delayed until Fidel's little brother Raul, who as of now is only the "temporary" despot, feels sure he has the upper hand. That effort appears to be a work in progress.
At this time the military seems to be loyal to Raul. Nevertheless, the dictator in waiting has at least two reasons to be worried. The first is Hugo Chávez, who pours an estimated $2 billion into the Cuban economy annually and seems to believe that he is the rightful revolutionary successor to Fidel. Rumor has it that attitude is not going down too well with Raul or his men. . . . Fold into this mix the tension that already exists between elements of the regime that see themselves as ideologically pure and loyal to Fidel and Raul's army, which seems to enjoy making money--as Mr. Latell describes so well in his book--and all kinds of complications arise.
Yet Hugo and the fidelistas might be the least of Raul's troubles. Less noticed by the international press but at least as threatening are the island's dissidents, who are once again stirring things up, this time with their "non-cooperation campaign." While conventional wisdom discounts the movement as weak, disorganized and easily infiltrated, every action of the government suggests that popular resistance to the regime is spreading, even after a brutal wave of repression was unleashed more than a year ago.
It is also worth noting that Lula, a left-wing president of a country that has traditionally supported the Cuban dictatorship, has publicly lamented Castro's failure to democratize. That doesn't augur well for continued international support for the island slave plantation.
Non-cooperation is a strategy aimed at whittling away at the most fundamental tool of every totalitarian regime: fear. The system can survive only if each Cuban believes he is greatly outnumbered by lovers of the revolution and that in speaking out, he is doomed. This is why the regime risked so much bad press to crush the dissidents in March of 2003 in a brutal islandwide crackdown. Intense, debilitating fear must be kept alive if the regime is to survive.
Opponents of the regime also understand the power of fear, and it is why they are hopeful about the non-cooperation campaign, which provides a passive way for Cubans to quietly discover solidarity. Rather than calling on citizens to actively rebel against the government, "non-cooperation" asks them simply to refuse to participate in the oppression. . . .
Go read the rest of it.
Essay question (10pts): compare and contrast the Cuban dissidents in this article with the Dixie Chicks. Which group is more intimately familiar with being "silenced," and why?
Posted by: Mike ||
10/29/2006 07:59 ||
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I think we need a sensible middle ground (which is not the same thing as PC wishy-washy crap).
a) Restore critical thinking skills to our culture. Teach science, math, facts from history.
Acknowledge the role of interpretation in establishing and choosing salient facts - i.e. a spectrum. At one end is consensus reality, my 17 thermometers register the same temperature reading to 3 decimal places. At the other end is political interpretation of social trends etc.
2. Restore sanity re: church vs. state. Congress shall establish no religion, but neither shall it be hostile to it. Let local communities decide whether they want to display menorahs, creche scenes, build mosques etc.
Let idiots rant and rave from mimbahs and pulpits. Publicize their crap to all and sundry. Prosecute the first idiot that tries to act on their hatefilled ideas. And the second, and the third and anyone else stupid enough to buy in. Deport hate preachers who are not citizens. Revoke the citizenship of any naturalized citizens who incite to violence and civil disorder.
#1
Let idiots rant and rave from mimbahs and pulpits.
If these Islamic shitbags weren't so intent on killing Americans and using their pseudo-religious dogma to justify it, I'd have less of a problem with this suggestion. That they are actively seeking to use weapons of mass destruction on American soil makes this prospect even less pleasing. I see no alternative to banning unreformed Islam from American soil.
Publicize their crap to all and sundry.
Same problems as above.
Prosecute the first idiot that tries to act on their hatefilled ideas. And the second, and the third and anyone else stupid enough to buy in. Deport hate preachers who are not citizens. Revoke the citizenship of any naturalized citizens who incite to violence and civil disorder.
Now imagine a news headline: "US Senator: Australia a 'Nuclear Threat...'"
These people want to make sure they alienate as many of our real allies as possible, which they've always accused the Republicans of doing. They want to make sure that even if we do manage to get them out of office someday, we'll be starting over from very very very deep in the hole.
It'll be a disaster _and_ we'll be a laughing stock at the same time.
I don't know if it's possible, but it'll be easier to just keep them out of office to begin with.
#1
That was some retard dem in Tenn. But he's black so I can't rub on him too much or people even here will come out of the woodwork and accuse me of hate speech.
Via Release the Hounds
Muslims For A Safe America conducted a survey at the Islamic Society of North Americas 43rd Annual Convention in Chicago from September 1, 2006 to September 4, 2006. 307 Muslims who are American citizens participated in the survey at the Muslims For A Safe America booth at ISNA.
...
2. Do you consider yourself to be a Muslim first, an American first, or both equally?
MUSLIM FIRST 214
AMERICAN FIRST 4
BOTH EQUALLY 86
UNDECIDED 3
3. Is the American government at war with the religion of Islam?
YES 208
NO 79
UNDECIDED 20
4. Can a good Muslim be a good American?
YES 292
NO 11
UNDECIDED 4
5. Did Muslims hijack planes and fly them into buildings on 9/11?
YES 117
NO 139
UNDECIDED 51
6. Did the U.S. government have advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, and allow the attacks to occur?
YES 200
NO 70
UNDECIDED 37
7. Did the U.S. government organize the 9/11 attacks?
YES 106
NO 151
UNDECIDED 50
8. Are the tapes of Osama Bin Laden, claiming responsibility for the 9/11 attacks and threatening future attacks, real or fake?
REAL 126
FAKE 129
UNDECIDED 52
9. Did Muslims commit the July 2005 train and bus bombings in London?
YES 140
NO 104
UNDECIDED 63
10. The Canadian government says it stopped a plot by Canadian Muslims in June 2006 to attack targets in Canada. Do you believe there was a real plot by Muslims?
YES 61
NO 202
UNDECIDED 44 Rest at link
#2
denial won't absolve them of cultural culpability. Muslim first is all you need to know
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2006 9:47 Comments ||
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#3
It's really the combination of these two that poses the problem:
2. Do you consider yourself to be a Muslim first, an American first, or both equally?
MUSLIM FIRST 214
AMERICAN FIRST 4
BOTH EQUALLY 86
UNDECIDED 3
3. Is the American government at war with the religion of Islam?
YES 208
NO 79
UNDECIDED 20
If the vast majority of them consider themselves Muslims first and Americans only second, AND if they also consider America to be at war with Islam, then it follows that the vast majority of American Muslims consider themselves (for our purposes, anyway) at war with America.
Frankly, I think we ought to treat them that way. "Moderate Muslims", my ass...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/29/2006 10:38 Comments ||
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#4
The survey results don't suprise me much.
Muzzy First - 214 told the truth, 93 lied.
I wish to note 2 things:
1) It would have been interesting to follow-up #'s 5, 9, 10, 11 (and a host of others with fun variations) with something like:
Did they ask for it?
or
Did they have it coming?
2) 43rd Annual Convention. Shoulda stopped at 38th.
#5
If Islam was once a peace loving culture now it is no longer the case. The total derailment by the radical clearics is near complete. The answers about the government knowing and conspiring is no real news, just ask our friends on the far left.
Question number two is surprising. 86 people is amazingly high. I would venture to guess the number would be in the single didget if the same question was asked at Mass or even in church at West Point. Any reasonable responce by a believer would be my god, my family, my country and in that order.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/29/2006 10:50 Comments ||
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#6
Well, at least this is encouraging:
16. Do you believe that your local mosque is being monitored by wiretaps, government agents, or informants?
YES 227
NO 59
UNDECIDED 21
17. Do you believe that your personal phone calls are being listened to, or that your personal mail or email is being read, by the U.S. government?
YES 205
NO 78
UNDECIDED 24
#11
Does anyone know how well this group represents American Muslims? Is this group the American Muslim equivelent of Code Pink?
If it is, then this survey is actually good news, since these results are less extreme than results found on the KOS KIDS, DU etc.
Since this is not a scientific survey, I would view it as only the views of a certain segment of activists.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
10/29/2006 13:36 Comments ||
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#12
2. Do you consider yourself to be a Muslim first, an American first, or both equally?
MUSLIM FIRST 214
AMERICAN FIRST 4
BOTH EQUALLY 86
UNDECIDED 3
How would most Christians would answer this? Would the majority of Christians give up on Christianity in the name of America? Certainly not the Christians I know.
#2 is not the key, #4 is:
4. Can a good Muslim be a good American?
YES 292
NO 11
UNDECIDED 4
#14
The poll results are not surprising to me, and to surprise everyone here, if in the 1850s, a poll of Irish immigrants (potato famine), had been conducted with questions concerning Catholicism and their loyalty to the US, their answers would be very similar.
1) Do you consider yourself a Catholic first or an American first?
2) Is the American government at war with the religion of Catholicism?
3) Can a good Catholic be a good American?
Now, despite the belief that No Irish Need Apply was commonplace in the US, it was generally not the case; but ghetto-ization did keep the Irish from assimilating into the US as quickly as they could have.
So up unto almost World War II, the Irish were "Irish first, Catholic second, and then American."
This did not mean that they were anti-American. But in tightly-knit communities, with a distinct ethnic leadership and religious caste, affiliation for one's "own" people is much higher than for outsiders.
#15
Muslim First? I have no problem with that. But what KIND of Mulsim is whats important. Like Catholics, were they Cathoic then Irish then Sinn Fein or the other way around? A lot of the gunners and bombing assholes had thier order wrong, they tended to be communist/socialist and then "Irish" (which they bent way out of any recognizable honorable form), and then whatever leftover parts of Catholicism they could jam in there. Good prevailed int hat peopel eventually came to their sense and chose to be Catholic, then Irish, then all the other political crap.
The Muslims are going to have to face that day, and soon - are they going to allow the murderers racists and thugs to continue to usurp thier religious leadership, or will they finallys tand up and say enough? (I doubt it, but stranger things have happened).
As for me: personally, its God, Family, Country and Job. And in that order too.
Luckily the former isn't at odds with any of the latter. And with family in service and the nature of my work, all the areas are pretty well harmonized.
But first, a look at the activist career of Jonathan Hutto, the "front man" of this organization. In the initial media coverage of this story he was described as "a Navy seaman based in Norfolk, Va., who set up the Web site a month ago." But that's a humble description of a well-traveled man. The full truth - while easy to discover - is a bit more complex ...
1999-2004: Hutto works for "non-profit organizations", including Amnesty International
2001: In his capacity as an Amnesty International spokesperson he appears as a speaker in an event touted as a "Militant Labor Forum" by the "socialist newsweekly" The Militant.
2002: Hutto has risen to the position of Amnesty International's Membership Program Coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Region (seen here - with megaphone - "rallying the troops").
2003: The United States invades Iraq
2004: Hutto joins the Navy, and serves as a Mass Communications Specialist and Photographer aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt.
Summer, 2006: He is recognized as the Theodore Roosevelt's outstanding "Blue Jacket of the Quarter (BJOQ)"
Hutto, a native of Atlanta, joined the Navy two years and six months ago, and has been a member of TRs Photo Lab for two years. Being selected as BJOQ gives me a strong sense of accomplishment, Hutto said. It feels good to have the vote of confidence in my abilities from my chain of command.
As assistant 3M coordinator for Admin Department, Hutto spends a lot of his time performing maintenance and making sure Admin Departments spaces are in top shape. Hutto hopes to make third class petty officer off of this past advancement exam, and wants to earn his surface warfare qualification.
September 26, 2006: Hutto contributes an article in a socialist newsletter aimed at "the troops" detailing the racism and discrimination he suffered at the hands of the Navy.
October 26, 2006: Fenton Communications holds a media teleconference to announce the launch of the "Appeal for Redress" web site. News stories that follow describe Hutto simply as "a Navy seaman based in Norfolk, Va., who set up the Web site a month ago." It would appear that among his other accomplishments, Hutto is very skilled at web page design.
dry humor here - it's a professionally done site. By whom, you ask? Well, by ...
Fenton Communications, a "public relations" group whose lengthy client list includes Fourth Freedom, Military Families Speak Out, and MoveOn.org. They are also the group that coordinated the instant media buzz over Cindy Sheehan.
Right. That's where I remember the Fenton name.
TrueMajority -- an antiwar group founded by Ben Cohen, one of the creators of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream -- hired Fenton Communications, a Washington public relations firm that has worked intermittently with Sheehan over the past year to coordinate media coverage. TrueMajority and Ben and Jerry's are also Fenton clients, by the way.
2. Fourth Freedom Forum, (another of Fenton's clients), is the actual "owner" of the Appeal for Redress web site. According to the NY Sun, it was David Cortright, president of the Fourth Freedom Forum (and author), who approached Fenton to represent Appeal for Redress.
#3
Fenton Communications was also behind the Alar Scare about 20 or so years ago. This is where they created a media frenzy about Alar on Washington State apples (failing to note that apple growers had abandoned Alar years before that). As I recall CBS 60 minutes was also involved.
Schools nationwide stopped giving apples in their lunch programs and there was widespread public panic concerning 'apples'. All based on fabricated science.
#4
I remember a 60 Minutes segment doing someting on a Chevy PU truck load of Alar that burst into flames, killing a Spotted Baby Owl that was hiding from the lumber jacks.
#6
That's weird... I'm prolly biased, but I figure most of the conservative blogs are indivual-based (at least the ones I know), but I have the impression their leftist counterparts are not only group-centered, but powered by political associations as well (see this one, or just think "soros").
Paranoia, or a clear illustration the way the "culture war" is being fought?
#7
This is very interesting for what it tells us about the media-industrial complex as a network of loose affiliates, all of which deny any real connection to the others.
We see Hutto moving up the career ladder with several activist groups and media outlets, in a seamless interconnected network that has big money and professional expertise written all over it.
#8
Interesting that when I.P Phreely signed up there was NO way of confirming his identity. I heard that SSgt Hugh Jass is signing up today. If you know any other military buddies that should sign up (like Richard Cranium) send them here.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2006 16:15 Comments ||
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#10
"Mass Communications Specialist and Photographer"
"performing maintenance and making sure Admin Departments spaces are in top shape"
As a Nuke ET, I'm shaking my head in disbeleif at this strange juxtaposition!
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
10/29/2006 16:31 Comments ||
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#11
AA5839:
He might have collateral duty as his division's damage-control maintenance man; he'd be responsible for doing stuff like weighing fire extinguishers and having them recharged if the CO2's low, changing gaskets in watertight doors, putting proper markings/signs on valves, pipes, etc.
But he's still a leftist assnugget who was obviously planted in the USN as a means of damaging military morale and cohesiveness from within.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
10/29/2006 18:09 Comments ||
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#12
My old navy buddies Phil Latio and Jack Mehoff want to join this noble effort, too...but there's no index on the site so they can see whether or not they've already been entered ;-)
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
10/29/2006 18:15 Comments ||
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THE ENEMY FAILS By AMIR TAHERI Amir actually knows what is going on in the ME. Will this be publicized by the MSM? DO I hear.........crickets?
AMERICAN angst over Iraq typically misses two key points.
First: The United States has already achieved the goals it had proclaimed when it set out to liberate the country in 2003. Saddam Hussein and his war machinery are gone, with a democracy in their place, inspiring reform across the region.
Second: This success threatens countless interests - so the many enemies of the new Iraq are attempting to derail it. Yet their only real hope of victory lies with America public opinion. Think about that and read on.
Consider the events of the last month. NEW Iraq's various enemies had designated the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan that has just ended as "The Month of Battle and Victory" (shahr al-maarakah wa al-nasr). Through their various statements, distributed on jihadist Web sites and TV channels owned by Arab despots, they had fixed a number of objectives that they had hoped to achieve with a view to demoralizing the American people and strengthening the cut-and-run party in Washington and London. Heh. He said "cut-and-run party". Heh.
The average televiewer in the United States or Europe may well conclude that the enemies of new Iraq have achieved their Ramadan objectives. This has been the deadliest month in well over a year, with at least 600 civilians killed in several dozen insurgent operations. The Iraqi army and police lost more than 180 men, while U.S. forces suffered 98 dead. May they all rest in peace.
The perception created by the traitorious, lying MSM is that of a situation in which the terrorists can strike where and when they want while U.S. and Iraqi forces are murdered without inflicting the slightest harm on the enemy. Nevertheless, the Saddamites, the jihadists and the militias sponsored by Tehran not only achieved none of their objectives but also suffered their biggest losses since the start of the insurgency in 2004.
HERE are some of the objectives that the Jihadists, the Saddamites and other enemies of new Iraq had fixed for themselves but did not achieve:
* Seizing enough territory in and around the towns of Haditha and Aanah in the al-Anbar province to establish an "Islamic emirate" there. Despite several major attempts they failed, largely because a strong new coalition of Sunni Arab tribes in Anbar has entered the fight to flush the jihadists out of Iraq.
* To gain a foothold in Mosul, Iraq's largest Arab Sunni city, and turn it into a new base as Fallujah had been in 2004. Again, despite several attempts, the plan failed - thanks to the new Iraqi army backed by U.S. forces.
* To blow up the Shiite holy shrines in Karbala and Najaf just as was done in Samarrah last year. At least 12 suicide-bombers were sent to the two cities on the last day of Ramadan. The authorities decided to close the shrines for 48 hours, captured some of the would-be bombers and nipped the plot in the bud.
* Attacking the "Green Zone" in the heat of Baghdad, where most Iraqi government offices and the U.S. embassy are located. The insurgents made at least two attempts but failed, suffering heavy casualties.
* To paralyze the parliament by threatening to kill its members at a time they were discussing such key issues as federalism, a law for foreign investments in Iraq and the terms of an amnesty and national reconciliation. Again, despite several attempts on the lives of parliamentarians, the plot failed.
* To prevent Arab Sunni clerics from traveling to Mecca to sign a concordat with their Shiite clerics, calling for an end to sectarian killings. Again, the jihadist efforts failed, as all key figures in the Arab Sunni clerical elite of Iraq went to Mecca and signed the concordat.
* Muqtada al-Sadr and his Jaish al-Mahdi (Mahdi Army) tried to seize control of the southern Shiite city of al-Amarah with a well-planned attack reportedly designed by Iranian advisers. However, the attack failed and Sadr's gunmen were flushed out of the city.
* Sadr's militia, in alliance with local gangsters, tried to seize control of part of the border with Iran through which crude oil is smuggled from Iraq to the Iranian refinery at Kermanshah. The attempt failed - thanks to the new Iraqi army, which now controls virtually the whole of the border outside the Kurdish areas.
* Despite numerous murders and abductions, the jihadist promise to force the total closure of hospitals, universities, schools, newspapers, TV stations and even barber shops was not fulfilled.
* A plot by Sadr militias to seize the Interior Ministry and reinstate the 1,300 of their members who had been purged by the new minister failed, again thanks to the new Iraqi police.
* Despite explicit murder threats, more than a dozen prominent Iraqi political figures, among them former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and former Deputy Premier Ahmad Chalabi, returned to Baghdad after months spent abroad.
* Attempts at preventing the forthcoming local government elections by destroying voter lists and killing election organizers have failed. The elections will take place on schedule with all Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish and Christian parties already in the field.
* To drive a wedge between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhamamd Sistani, the primus inter pares of the Shiite clergy. The attempt, backed by Sadr and others, failed when Maliki went to Najaf to acknowledge Sistani's position and secure his blessing for planned amnesty measures.
* To prevent the marking of the Eid al-Fitr (the end of Ramadan) by threatening people with massive suicide attacks. Again, despite several murder operations, the terrorists failed as countless Iraqis celebrated the feast with greater determination than previous years.
The various enemies of new Iraq murdered a large number of people in Ramadan, but failed to translate their crimes into any political gains for themselves. Politically, the Saddamites, the jihadists and other enemies of new Iraq have passed their worst month ever.
THE only success buoyed by the constant whining of the dhims and MSM they have had is in the field of perceptions in the United States and the West in general. They could point to the fact that the "Iraq is a failure" chorus is at its loudest yet in the United States, while signs of a possible British loss of nerve multiply.
It is largely the hope of breaking the will of the American people and its key allies that keeps the insurgency alive. And there it is.
#1
Sounds like a repeat the Tet Offensive. The VC were virtually wiped out and the North Vietmanese Army were on the verge of talking peace.
But Cronkite and others in the MSM termed it a vast disaster for the Americans and South Vietmanese - prompting the American pullout and eventually the fall of Saigon.
Millions died because Cronkite lied and Hanoi Jane (and indirectly John Kerry) supported North Vietnam.
We may already be too late. If the Dems take back control of the House and Senate, my take is that the MSM will celebrate the breaking of the will of the American people to wage a just and defensive war TWICE within the past 40 years. Of course, the MSM doesn't see it that way, but someday that's how history will view it.
Since it will be my children and my children's children that inherit the muslim wind, in no small part thanks to the MSM, I'll take that.......PERSONALLY.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/29/2006 21:35 Comments ||
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#4
Since the end of WW II, there's been a change.
If the US is in a war, it does not matter where, the most important terrain in the war is the six inches between the ears of the American voter. Probably the last folks to figure this out are in DC. The commies and now the terrs know it perfectly well, as does the MSM.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
10/29/2006 23:10 Comments ||
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#5
Thank you for posting this Brett. What a refreshing change from the old Gloom & Doom spewed by the Media.
I look forward to the day when talking heads from the mainstream media can be found begging on street corners. I'll scatter a handful of pennines on the ground to watch them crawl for a change.
In Chamchamal, a dilapidated Kurdish town in northern Iraq, a group of men chat away the hours until the breaking of the Ramadan fast at sundown and recount the many reasons why they have lost faith in their government. The Kurdistan Democratic party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the two guerrilla movements who fought for 40 years against Baghdad, have proved less inspiring in peacetime. They were towers of strength . . . but now they are failures, laments one.
They complain, like others across the Kurds autonomous northern zone of Iraq, of shortages of fuel, poor drinking water and other symptoms of the corruption and administrative lethargy they claim characterise the new administration. In August, they took to the streets to demand changes, one of many protests to have broken out across the Kurdistan self-rule area in the past month.
Yet this gathering in Chamchamal dismisses a suggestion that they may ever support an alternative to their current leadership.
As bad as the present might be, they also recall a day 18 years ago when the Iraqi army rolled into town as part of its Anfal campaign, an attempt to isolate Kurdish guerrillas by depopulating the regions from which they drew their support. The Kurds estimate 180,000 people lost their lives. One policeman recalls how men, women and children were loaded into trucks and driven away, never to be seen again. The [problems] today are all paradise compared to how it was then, he says.
It's not such a bad life, complaining about services, petty corruption and the fools in the current government, compared to what could happen.
In a week or so, the New York Review of Books is going to publish an article by James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia hypothesis (in which the Earth is viewed as more than an ecosystem, closer to a living being, that can be healthy or diseased, and can change, through evolution, from one state to the other). Lovelock will declare that the Earth's temperature is about to rise five to eight degrees centigrade (depending on where you are -- more at the poles, less in the tropics), and that this temperature rise will have disasterous consequences for all life, eventually, for example, reducing the human population from six billion to two hundred million, mostly living in the far north, and, as another example, submerging the British Isles, creating out of the highest points of land an archipelago, where some, but not much, habitation will be possible. As for the western United States, done for, along with much of the rest of the world, and civilization as we know it, of course. Aaaaagggghhh! We're all gonna die!
And then there's a report by the Global Policy Forum, which, I gather, is a UN watchdog organization, about what's going on with Iraqi oil. . . . Who cares about oil? What good is oil gonna do us when we're dead?
[Moonbat bill of particulars deleted]
The lies, cheats, and crimes Dick, George, and the Pnackers have committed have done what all lies, cheats, and crimes do -- they have led to more and more lies, cheats, and crimes, and now the misconceived nature of the whole enterprise is apparent to all. It doesn't matter at this point if they manage to steal the mid-term election this year or not. So, all you "progressives" out there, on Election Day, don't bother voting--it's too late! Not even Ned Lamont and Dennis Kucinich can save us! We're all dead!
Iraq is such a mess that even Dick's friends and allies can't think of a way to save it or to clean it up. The Iraqis, I am sorry to say, have to pay the price, but at least they know who's to blame.
But to get back to Lovelock, horrible as it is, Iraq is not the point, Iraq is only the canary in the mine, giving voice to the coming cataclysm. Not even the US is the point, although since 1980, the Republicans have been pandering to the greedy appetites of Americans for driving big vehicles, arming themselves, and thinking themselves superior to everyone in the world. They have egged Americans on to destroying the world's environment for the sake of more and more goods, and now America is in big trouble. But empires come and go. Get over it. So what? We're all gonna die! Even those of us who ate organic vegetables and used public transportation-- we're just as dead as those SUV-owning breeders!
What is the point is human survival. If Americans had started taking the meaning of oil dependence seriously in 1977, when Jimmy Carter asked us to, or had not ridiculed the idea of climate change in 1992, when Al Gore brought it up, we might have gotten a start by this time in reducing emissions, we might not be looking at one horrific disaster paving the way for another. But it's too late now, we're all dead!
But we are. There aren't many tyrants in history who can truthfully say they put the entire future of civilization at risk just to make a buck and feel the power, but Dick Cheney and the Pnackers can. So here's a word to the 200 million who will someday be left: Good luck, and it was these guys who pulled the trigger.
Jane Smiley is a novelist and essayist. Her novel A Thousand Acres won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
lol!
a report by the Global Policy Forum, which, I gather, is a UN watchdog organization
#2
Great! I can put the parka and hiking boots into storage and break out the T-shirts and shorts this January. Unless of course this guy and his Gaia worshiping pals are completely full of sh*t.
#5
"the Earth's temperature is about to rise five to eight degrees..."
So, um, when d00d?
Someday the sun will evolve into a red dwarf, swelling and swallowing most or all of the inner solar system.
Someday the magnetic poles will flip, again, and the "down time" until the magnetic fields regain strength will be very interesting... stock up on sunblock...
Someday the ice age we are currently in, the last 12,000 years is a just tiny warm spell within it, will reassert itself. Chill City.
Near Earth asteroids, Super Volcanoes, Mega Tsunamis, flesh-eating bacteria, the coming viral plague, eating at MacDonald's, etc, etc, etc. There are gazillions of ways to die, and most of them have a chance of occurring. Maybe a much better chance than the loonies ascribe to Lovelock's eagerly expected babble.
It will be interesting to see how he documents the involved natural mechanisms and their cascading failures. Somehow, I'm thinking it will be as simple-minded as The Day After Tomorrow, but that's just most of mankind. The Dummies part. His minions and sycophants are The Brilliant part, of course.
Someday. Yup, we're gonna be fucked, sooner or later. I'm thinking Lovelock is getting along in years, now, and will predict a fuzzy time beyond his lifespan. He can be lionized, feted, rewarded for his "courage", yadda³ - and won't be around when this giant egg he's laying doesn't hatch.
Meanwhile, as their money pots sit half-empty, the screeching of the Gaian death cult grows in volume...
#8
A while back, I played around with a website I was intending to put up called Apocalypse. Amongst other things it had an estimate of the chances of a person born today dying in various apocalytic events. Megavolcano, Tsunami, Asteroid impact, etc.
Essentially it multiplied the likelyhood of the event in a human lifetime by the probability it would kill any given person.
Abrupt climate cooling as occured at the start of the Younger Dryas circa 10,000 years ago came out way in front of any other risk, by a factor of close to a thousand (from memory).
#10
So, Civilization is gonna end, yeah, yeah, yeah, big deal, but what will happen to my pr0n stash? I think people should start focusing on the real issues. Should I burn it on dvds?... But I fear they might melt, that could happen, couldn't it? Oh, I'm so confused.
#11
I didn't think of this last night when I posted, but this essay reminds me of a scene in The Incredibles:
Dash: We're dead! We're dead! We survived but we're dead!
Helen: Stop it, both of you! We are not going to die! Now, you will both get a grip or so help me, I'll ground you for a month. Understand?
Posted by: Mike ||
10/29/2006 7:53 Comments ||
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#12
So, Civilization is gonna end, yeah, yeah, yeah, big deal, but what will happen to my pr0n stash? I think people should start focusing on the real issues. Should I burn it on dvds?... But I fear they might melt, that could happen, couldn't it? Oh, I'm so confused.
Posted by anonymous5089
clearly, the only safe storage medium is in space....like the Pioneer plaque but with Ron Jeremy. Burn to DVD's and hermetically seal in the craft. Don't thank me, I'm just doing my part for pr0n
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2006 8:39 Comments ||
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#13
Yeah, I'm thinking time capsule. Just think at the amazement and wonder of future archeologists, when they will imagine our civilization based on that!
#15
People like her should not wish for the collapse of civilization. Their kind would be the fist to go, I guanantee it. My kind would rise to rule the desolate waste in a post civilization Mad Max type drunken orgy of violence and myrth. I can hardly wait. I'm gonna go start my F-150 and let it idle in the driveway, just to speed things along.
#16
Damn, only one thing to do. Only question is Kools or Raleighs? I guess Kools, since those Raleigh stamps are going to be heavily discounted come the end times.
#18
Where is the Scrappleface? This is Scrapleface? You mean I have been eating bean sprouts and driving that junk heap toyota for nothing? Man I'm pissed and on my way to buy a 1 ton truck for commuting to work and to soccer games.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/29/2006 11:02 Comments ||
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#19
Lol, bigjim-ky!
Lol, 49pan. HuffyPuffy, the completely unintentional Scrappleface, lol.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
