December 2007 archive

When Animals Attack

Overcovered in a shameless play to the cheap seats for at least the past three days has been the fatal attack Christmas Day on 17-year-old Carlos Susa and two others who were injured by Tatiana, a Siberian tiger at the San Francisco zoo.

Not to discount Carlos’ family’s tragedy, just pointing out how this has gotten to be a real media circus with media whores coming out of the woodwork to use it as a way to get their Warholian 15 minutes of fame.

Pony Party: Curling

Curling. Not this is not about the styling of hair.

A few words about Canada’s second favorite sport and also a hit in northern states where winter is long and there is ice around. If you live in a climate with endless winter you need to have a winter sport or activity. Your other option is not to go outside for several months, sit around, brood, and drink. Some people chose that option. They end up shooting somebody or needing a stint on a psych ward.

I favored hockey and cross country skiing. When I went to university our institution sat on several acres of undeveloped land owned by said institution. Several of us used to leave our gear in a near by student lounge. My cousin Chris who hails from  the gateway of northern Ontario, likes ice fishing and the ski-doo.

I am only a casual curling fan. I watch the big events and know a few of the top names.

Canadians love curling and they do pretty well at it at international events.

The biggest event tend to be the Brier Cup which is for the men, although women’s curling also gets good attendance and TV ratings. Curling events in Canada get huge television audiences.

It can resemble “bowling on ice” or tiddlywinks and is highly strategic.

Here are some instructions on how to deliver a rock….

Apparently about 2.5% of Canadians are actively involved in curling and a majority of them live in rural prairie areas. If you had ever been to a rural prairie area in the winter you would gain great understanding as to why it has appeal. There is fuck all else to do. Another interesting fact 20 percent of those in curling have a bachelors degree. Curling likely originated in Scotland and was made popular in Canada by immigrants.

A team is composed of four players and the captain is the “skip”, generally the skip is a good strategist. The first throws a stone down the ice. There are multiple strategies, generally the first few stones thrown act as guards. The first will sweep for the second, the second and first will sweep for the third and so on. The skip will advise his/her teammates on how to sweep and when to back off. Teams will compete by both trying to set up good blocking stones and to knock out an opposition stone while laying their own closest to the center of what looks like a target. So, you can’t win just by throwing hard. A game consists of eight “ends”, essentially each team has eight “turns.”

I have made it seem far less complicated than it actually is.

Another thing about curling. Although it has some colorful figures. Russ Howard was known for serious enthusiasm, shouting jumping, talking loudly, poor sportsmanship just doesn’t exist. It is considered embarrassing and tacky. Crowds don’t boo or hiss.

The Canadian Curling Association has a pretty extensive website if you want to know more.

So what is your winter-chase-the blues-away activity? Remember don’t rec pony party, hang out chit chat, and then go read some excellent offerings from our recent and rec’d list.

NOW!! They WORRY about SPILLOVER!!

How did this Country end up with such a bunch of Uninteligent Criminals?

Never mind answering, I already know, we are what we hire or allow to steal those jobs, it’s been coming for a Long Time, and Now we’re going to suffer the consequences for as Long or Longer!

And what do ‘We The People’ do, Not A Damn thing as to holding anyone accountible for the actions taken ‘In Our Names’!

When You Know The Truth, The Facts Don’t Seem So Important

I don’t very often post an essay that is not at least in part my own writing, but this in my opinion is important enough for as many as possible to know to aid in understanding how we got to where we are today that… well, here it is.

Cross posted at OOIBC and Edgeing


Jason Leopold of Truthout interviews Craig Unger, a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, on the Rise of the Christian Right and Neoconservatism.

Unger garnered national attention with his previous book, House of Bush, House of Saud. Michael Moore cited it as a key source for Fahrenheit 9/11, and the film popularized the author’s reports on Saudi investments in Bush family enterprises.

In his new book, The Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America’s Future, Unger turns his attention to neoconservative officials and theorists. At times he focuses so closely on neocon tactics that he misses other forces driving Bush-Cheney policies. Even so, the book offers a vivid account of the use of disinformation to promote extremism.

Leopold: Craig, thank you for being with truthout today. What are some of the issues in your new book that we don’t know about – that the public does not know about?

Unger: Well, I think we’ve been told again and again that we got into the war in Iraq beacause of intelligence failures – that various things just turned out not to be true – that we made one mistake after another.

I actually think we got into the war for exactly the opposite reason – because of intelligence successes – and by that I mean black propaganda operations – disinformation.

Chris Pepus of Chicago Reader takes the book review further for us with…

Bush and the Neocons

By Chris Pepus, Chicago Reader, Thursday 20 December 2007 (via Truthout)

When you know the Truth, the facts don’t seem so important.

an expression of thanks

which I am offering only here.  I was invited when this site was being organized, but could not make a commitment to be a regular contributor. Nor can I make such a commitment now.  But many of those here and as part of the offlist group have meant a lot to me, both their own writing and by the support they have given mine.  I am actually quite insecure about many things, including my writing.  Thus the willingness of others to read what I offer, to comment, to criticize constructively and challenge where appropriate, has helped me improve both my thinking and my writing.

Today is our wedding anniversary, #22, about which I have diaried in a number of places.  And as await for Leaves on the Current to return home from NJ (she is now in transit), rather than doing school work, I am being reflective in a somewhat different way.

Each milestone we can mark on our live’s paths provides an opportunity for saying “now what?”   It is not that we cannot appreciate what we have managed despite all odds to achieve, nor is it necessary that we bemoan where we have missed the mark (and I will win no medals for my own accuracy this past year).  

I have always been shy but an extravert, a dangerous combination, because in most social situations I have trouble maintaining balance.  I find as I age I become increasingly introverted, even as my caring for other people deepens.  I am far less likely to attend purely social functions.  For the first time in 9 years at my school I did not attend my dpeartmental holiday celebration.  I could have –  I had had to make an emergnecy trip north for an issue involving the athletics at my alma mater, but I was back in the DC area in time to have stopped, picked up some food, and arrived basically on time.  But I found myself relieved to have a legitimate reason not to attend, perhaps because at the school-wide celebration I found myself wanting to withdraw somewhat.

And perhaps the change in the nature of the subjects about which I find myself drawn to write are a further indicator of this.   I do want my words read – I am insecure that way, which is why so often I tell other people when I have posted, hoping that they will at least glance at my words.  But today I realize that it doesn’t matter.  My task is to wrestle with what I perceive and think, to express it in a fashion that MIGHT be of use to others, but then to let go – of ownership, of concern.  Or as the words of Paul and Ringo said sime 4 decades ago,  “Let it be.’

Thank you all for putting up with my insecurity.  For being willing to share your time with me, even if only by occasionally reading.

At various points in my life I seriously considered becoming a monk.  But my spiritual father on Mount Athos told me back in 1983 that while I might make a good monk, my calling was elsewhere – he told me to go back into the world and marry Leaves.  He also told me things about our nature, even though he never met Leaves – somehow he knew.  And I have struggled for more than 2 decades to live up to the insight he offered me then.

I will be 62 in May.  My mother died before she was 50. my father lived on until his 84th birthday.  I do not know how much longer I might live.   But in that time I am drawn increasingly to simpler truths.  I ask then when I do write you be unafraid of challenging me.  My words should not be for my benefit, and if they do not speak to others there is no point in offering them.

I am sorry I cannot now offer more clarity, but I am slowly coming to an understanding of how I must live and what I must do.  It will require me still to grow, of course, to change in some ways small (which is often far more difficult) and in others on a lrger scale.

Again, thanks for your friendship, your tolerance, your patience.

Peace.

A Time To Share

For those who are able, the week before New Year’s can be a perfect time to contribute to charitable, public service, and arts organizations. It’s the holiday season, and for those who are on vacation, there is time to focus. I ask all of you to please tell us about, and preferably link, your favorite non-profits. I’m particularly interested in lesser known, local organizations.

Large and small, and mostly in their own words, these are some of my personal favorites (which do not necessarily reflect the views of DocuDharma or any of the other bloggers at DD):

Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment

The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment is an environmental justice litigation organization dedicated to helping grassroots groups across the United States attack head on the disproportionate burden of pollution borne by poor people and people of color. We provide organizing, technical and legal assistance to help community groups stop immediate environmental threats. In the 16 years that CRPE has been helping the poor and people of color resist toxic intrusions and protect their environmental health, among our many victories we have beaten toxic waste incinerators, forced oil refineries to use cleaner technology, beaten a 55,000-cow mega-dairy, stopped numerous tire burning proposals, helped bring safe drinking water to various rural communities, stopped a garbage dump on the Los Coyotes reservation in southern California, and empowered hundreds of local residents along the way. Our ongoing campaigns fall into three broad areas:

Air Quality

Clean Water

Civil Rights

Pony Party: Morning Art

We were going to go to Alabama, but the weather looks to be rainy and my MIL won’t appreciate muddy dogs. Now I am forced to confront the horrors of neglected housework.

But here is a little something to contemplate to get your day started…

Remember, don’t rec pony party…. hang out chit chat and then go read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

Kucinich: Candidates Must Answer for Their Foreign Policy Stands on Pakistan and the Middle East

MANCHESTER, N.H., Dec. 28 PRNewswire-USNewswire — The assassination of Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto not only underscores the dangerous and heightening political volatility throughout the entire Middle East, it should also send a message to U.S. voters about the importance of electing leaders whose foreign policy records and pronouncements reflect sound judgment in mitigating hostilities, not contributing to them.

From PR Newswire

Docudharma Times Saturday Dec.29

This an Open Thread: Where the Truth Does Not Hide

Headlines For Saturday December 29: In Bush’s Final Year, The Agenda Gets Greener : Crisis Overseas Is Sudden Test for Candidates: Defense bill stalls at president’s desk: Bhutto aide says bathed body, saw bullet wound: Australian Guantanamo man freed: Shame of Imported Labor in Kurdish North of Iraq

Robert Fisk: They don’t blame al-Qa’ida. They blame Musharraf

Published: 29 December 2007

Weird, isn’t it, how swiftly the narrative is laid down for us. Benazir Bhutto, the courageous leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, is assassinated in Rawalpindi – attached to the very capital of Islamabad wherein ex-General Pervez Musharraf lives – and we are told by George Bush that her murderers were “extremists” and “terrorists”. Well, you can’t dispute that.

But the implication of the Bush comment was that Islamists were behind the assassination. It was the Taliban madmen again, the al-Qa’ida spider who struck at this lone and brave woman who had dared to call for democracy in her country.

Of course, given the childish coverage of this appalling tragedy – and however corrupt Ms Bhutto may have been, let us be under no illusions that this brave lady is indeed a true martyr – it’s not surprising that the “good-versus-evil” donkey can be trotted out to explain the carnage in Rawalpindi.

USA

In Bush’s Final Year, The Agenda Gets Greener

People find all sorts of ways to lobby President Bush. Sometimes it comes in the form of a handwritten note slipped into his palm during a bill-signing ceremony.

Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) tried that last week when Bush signed energy legislation that will curb greenhouse gases. “Congratulations and good work,” Carper recalled writing. “By the way, Joe Lieberman and John Warner have a very good global warming bill that needs your support and you ought to support it.”

Bush tucked the note into his pocket and promised to read it later. Carper hoped he would find it at the end of the day when he slipped his suit off. No one knows what effect such a note might have, but it was just one more small foray in a battle for Bush’s attention that has been raging for years, one in which European leaders, American governors, corporate executives, evangelical preachers and key lawmakers have pressed him to lead what they see as a bid to save the planet.

George Bush’s concern for the environment extends as far as corporate greed.

Crisis Overseas Is Sudden Test for Candidates

WEBSTER CITY, Iowa – For the presidential candidates, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has emerged as a ghoulish sort of test: a chance to project leadership and competence – or not – on a fast-moving and nuanced foreign policy issue.

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Democrats who have struggled to attract voters’ attention, edged into the spotlight on Friday after talking about Pakistan for weeks.

Mr. Biden tried to sound presidential as he expressed concern about loose nuclear weapons in Pakistan, and he also emphasized his foresight by noting that he had long called Pakistan “the most dangerous nation on the planet.”

Mr. Richardson, a former diplomat, made an effort to cast himself as a man of action, meanwhile, calling for President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan to step down.

Rest in peace, Benazir Bhutto.

Motivated by her love, Benazir Bhutto risked  her life and ultimately lost her life in her effort to bring freedom from fear to everyone.

Motivated by cowardice, George W. Bush has taken hundreds of thousands of lives to imprison us in fear.

Before I continue, I’ll explain why my haitus was so brief. I realized I can’t abstain from the debate at such a crucial period of time. I can limit the time I spend to a short period once a week, so I can work and play a part in the dialog. I’m going to leave this website and all other political forums blocked on my personal computer, and only use a friend’s computer when it’s time to share my opinion.

After I announced my intention to back off and mind my own business, Budhydharma said this:

Well good. While you are off line, please consider the fact that Markos does not control the world and that what he does and says just really doesn’t matter that much. One of the main reasons we have a rule against Dkos bashing here is the futility of thinking that what Markos says or does makes some sort of huge difference in the world.

Try to, as you say, focus on changing the world OUTSIDE of the blogosphere.

I disagree. The best use of my time is influencing people INSIDE the “blogosphere”. That’s what it’s for and it’s my biggest influence. The best thing I can do is to influence you, Budhy, and through you, perhaps Markos. I will try.

Hitch Obit Slams Bhutto: ‘liar’

Christmas is the time for forgiving; and it is in the spirit of Christmas that I had, well before I read his exemplary obituary of Ms. Bhutto, decided to grant Christopher a reprieve for his earlier sins as Bush cheer-leader and restore him to the ranks of scribes of wit, if not reliable common-sense.

Hitch does not disappoint. He is fulsome in his praise of Ms. Bhutto, citing her undeniable courage, before quickly moving in for the kill.

How prettily she lied to me, I remember, and with such a level gaze from those topaz eyes, about how exclusively peaceful and civilian Pakistan’s nuclear program was.

More meat below the fold…

Abuse, a poem

there are no thoughts before my dull burning thud of a brain went all dull burning and thud-like thud-like thud-like*

a street artist places a headless man in such a way as to appear that his head was enveloped by the concrete of an office building in Philadelphia

that mannequin knows what I’m talking about

that mannequin he understands

was it the fifth concussion

or the fifteenth

was it a brother pleading for revenge before parent returned home

or was it a mother saying kick him in the head and not the legs

he has to race later today you know

or an older mother saying

well i wanted a hug but just look at him —–>me

was it the 10th crack of my dad’s school ring on my skull

or the 40th

when did I go dim

I never realized I was disabled

but god i must be

looking back

at the attacks

on the smallest human in the house

my time to pack came at 15

I never looked back

but stepped into footprints

too tiny to fill

and a keg or two in order to do my own damage to my own brain

for once

how many times was I left in the rain

how many times did i cry

what is the name of this American game

oh that’s right…Abuse.

*hat tip to Capt. Beefheart in all his glory

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