January 2008 archive

Here are mine. Please add yours below or tell me what you think.  It’s time to start working on 2008.

1. The Hives: Tick Tick Boom. The Hives are a Swedish garage band that brings back the energy of  early punk. They tried to do more serious music, perhaps to avoid the label of “shallow”, and abandoned that idea. Good move.

2. Serj Tankian The unthinking majority. I found his music online because he has a poltical bent.  He has his own style that is Zappa-ish.

3. Foo Fighters. Pretender.  A nice electric sound; I’m not a big heavy metal fan, but I like their sound.

4. Lily Allen.  Everything’s just wonderful.  Her sweet, sexy voice in that cockney accent singing sassy working class songs is an incongruent mix, but I love it.

5. Amy Winehouse. Rehab. Early last year I tried to buy tickets to hear her play at a movie theater near my house; she was sold out.  I couldn’t wait for the album to be imported. I was singing rehab before Amy knew she was headed there.  

This is a short review of two biographies of Hugo Chávez, current President of Venezuela.

(from Idealterna on Flickr)

Mostly I am interested in comparing and contrasting the two biographical styles.  Marcano and Tyszka are much like journalists, whereas Jones has a somewhat pro-Chávez axe to grind.  In the end I find Jones more straightforward.  I am also interested in depicting Chávez against the background of Venezuelan political economy, in which a rich few garner all of the profits from Venezuela’s enormous oil reserves while the poor majority have in the past found themselves shut out of the benefits in times when the price of crude oil has been high.

(crossposted at Big Orange)

Live from the studios of MCAM, Ch 23 in Manchester NH, you’re invited to bring in the New Year with Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich at the Resolution for Peace!

cross posted at The Dream Antilles

The caracol (a snail) is a Zapatista symbol for free government entities (juntas). It’s a link between the present and the Mayan past.  And it’s a reminder of a time when the world moved much more slowly.  When there was time for thinking and time for thoughts.  When there was less rushing.  When there was deliberation.

And so the caracol is my wish to you for 2008.  May all of your minutes have 60 seconds.  May there be time to reflect.  May there be time to step off the treadmill.  May there be a pause.  May there be time for you.  And may time gift you with abundant delight, joy, happiness, satisfaction, peace, comfort, safety and health.

Y prospero año nuevo!

The New York Times published an editorial today entitled Looking at America that says very clearly what is at stake with the next election and how far we have to go to get back to the America we once knew:

There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior. It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency.

–snip

The country and much of the world was rightly and profoundly frightened by the single-minded hatred and ingenuity displayed by this new enemy. But there is no excuse for how President Bush and his advisers panicked – how they forgot that it is their responsibility to protect American lives and American ideals, that there really is no safety for Americans or their country when those ideals are sacrificed.

The editorial is the question many people in Europe are asking as they consider whether the “American Century” is over because of the mistakes of George W. Bush and company.  Whether they will have to look to the EU as the new world leader or whether Putin has positioned Russia to take that role, as concerning as that idea may be.

Whether those in America realise the precarious nature of their world position and their own position at home is yet to be seen and will require much reflection by the American people themselves.  But, as the NYT editorial says so well and considering all that’s at stake, it may have become a prerequisite to good citizenship.  

More below the jump…

Hi all – I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. I’m oot and aboot, so I probably won’t be here to comment. Have at it!