Author's posts
Nov 14 2007
Advancing the Cause of Civilization
Most thoughtful people would agree that we have an obligation to advance the cause of civilization. We owe it to our children, our grandchildren, and to posterity. We are not only stewards of the earth, as are all human beings, but we Americans are also stewards of the original American vision as established in 1776. Remember the cause of liberty?
Nov 10 2007
It’s Time For Profound Change in America
An America that tortures is not my America.
An America that denies healthcare to its citizens is not my America.
An America run by amoral corporations and corrupt politicians for the exclusive benefit of the few at the expense of the many is not my America.
An America that drops bombs on innocent babes, fabricates elaborate lies to cheat, steal and justify bogus wars of aggression is not my America.
Nov 04 2007
Who Killed the Kennedys
I was eleven in ’63…when they killed John Kennedy. That was the end of my innocence, and the end of America’s too.
I shouted out,
“Who killed the Kennedys?”
When after all
It was you and meRolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil
Oct 31 2007
American Twilight – the Ascendancy of Monsters
It’s enough to make the mountains cry, what’s been done to this beautiful land…and its (mostly) beautiful people. Most of us after all are pretty decent folks, even many of those whom I am prone to rail against – the mistaken ones or the sleeping ones. The monsters among us finally are few…they just have a disproportionate affect on the rest.
Oct 21 2007
Life on Earth 2.0 – with graphics upgrade
Note: Please forgive the re-post – still seems relevant.
Life on earth, in fact all life (as far as we know) is sustained by the razor thin and fragile atmosphere of a relatively tiny random globe in an obscure and nondescript solar system based on a third rate star hugging the inner edge of one immense spiral arm of a generic spiral galaxy in a far flung region of the vast and only Universe we know (although we are beginning to suspect that there may be others – see Multiverse Theory).
Oct 20 2007
Why
If our near extraterrestrial neighbors are aware of us at all, I’m sure we’re an embarrassment. Must we forever be the savage planet? Is civilization less a veneer and more an illusion? Does it have to be this way? Are humans really this bad – this hopeless? Is war a permanent feature of the human condition?
Sometimes I wonder. But then I think of Michelangelo, said to be somewhat beastly himself, and yet a font of beauty, transcendent and sublime – and I have reason to hope that we are better than our history suggests. Even in all our crudeness there is something profound within us.
Oct 16 2007
No Time Left To Compromise With Evil
Some people believe we shouldn’t complain too loudly, protest too vigorously or argue too passionately – the theory being that if we appear too leftist, too radical or too seriously committed to our beliefs that people who don’t share those beliefs will be offended and therefore unlikely to become seriously committed radical leftists themselves one day. Well I have big news; those dim bulbs are not likely to ever shine – certainly not in response to our stifling ourselves. For once, let’s let the smart people have their say.
If one guy believes in global warming denial, torture, war profiteering, and ripping off the poor and another guy objects to all of these things, then one of these guys is right and one is wrong. This is not merely a difference this is a distinction. I’m not saying the latter individual is more human than the former, I’m saying he is a better human…period.
Oct 14 2007
Eye On The Sky
*all photos courtesy of NASA
Keep a fire burning in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming downfrom Jackson Browne’s For A Dancer
Of the many strange episodes that have played themselves out in the course of my life, one of the more interesting was the two and a half years I spent working on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) project.
Oct 07 2007
What Ever Happened to the Democrats?
Remember when they were an opposition party? Remember when they were on our side? I’m sure most of you have noticed by now that they just aren’t anymore.
Oct 02 2007
No Beast So Dumb As Man
a Docudharma exclusive
I woke up this morning recovering from the flu, still weak and vaguely feverish. I haven’t written much lately and feel the need to do so. Where to begin, the cold-blooded murder of peace-loving monks in Myanmar, the outrageous crimes of our own outlaw government, the shameful bastards in our do-nothing congress, the back-stabbing republican-lite democrats, the hot air from our ‘leaders’ on global warming, war profiteering as the new national pastime, the black-hearted evil of the military-industrial-congressional-media complex, the armies of lying blowhards on the TeeVee, the Halliburton detention centers being constructed across the country for the detention of ‘potential terrorists’ (such as bloggers, demonstrators, peace activists, and real democrats), national indignation at silly newspaper ads while the killing and dying goes on unimpeded – so much horror and madness, so little time.
Weakened and overwhelmed by the harsh realities of the day, I am reduced to communicating via art and poetry.