Here’s a tidbit that shows the value of human life in some circles:
“This year they have played and had fun and laughed like no other children have, which they have never been able to do,” she said.
Read the whole story, then ask yourself if perhaps our society can benefit from a campaign for decreasing population growth.
I can’t help wondering where the “Right-to-Lifers” are in this picture…
Our two-party system of political antitheses give rise to an interesting (to me anyway) phenomenon I call the Political Pendulum. As noted earlier this year the mammoth, razor-sharp blade has begun its backswing. During late winter its momentum hovered in near-stasis until the circus that began with Terri Schiavo. At that time the first inkling of reverse motion began. Slowly, the massive pendulum of political dissent began a leftward track, hastened by the mounting deaths in Iraq, the price of oil, and the fallout of DeLay trials and Frist fits, then by sheer mass as pole after pole announced lower approval ratings for incumbents. Finally, Katrina blew in, and governmental inaction gave the swinging blade yet more impetus. Its time for all good Democrats to stop cringing and take action. The blade is swinging in our favor.
I finally have an answer I can accept as to why our administration waited days to respond to the crisis in Louisiana: Profit. What we see as a national disaster, the Bush administration sees as a way for make more money. As is happening in Iraq, companies with strong ties to our pathetic administration are being handed lucrative contracts for the rebuilding of New Orleans. Over $60 billion is in play here, and the faithful are all set to reap the benefits of hanging with the big boys.
I am sickened by the blatant patronage. While good Americans were in shock at the lack of response, our elected officials were indeed hard at work on the crisis - figuring out how best to make another monetary killing our of the mess.
The priorities of Our Favorite Shrubbery are there for all to see: to destroy in order to let select companies with financial ties rebuild. Has anyone though to look at the stock portfolios of George, Dick and Karl lately? I’ll bet my best cowboy hat that the very same companies reaping the largest government contracts will be represented. Everybody knows that what’s good for the shareholders is good for the company. To my escalating horror, what’s good for the company is killing people.
Where is society going? What is a realistic assessment for the future of our children’s children? What needs to be done to affirm a positive future of this shrinking planet?
Such are the turns of philosophical morosity I experience as I ponder this Fourth Anniversary of That Nameless Event Currently Known As… 9/11
In attempt to answer – or to at least purge my troubled mind – I create yet another wandering philippic. Left of Center: Happy Birthday, 9/11!
WaPo shouts: “Bush Urges Quick Confirmation of Roberts as Chief Justice.” Of course he does. Lets hurry through a life-term appointment of a committed conservative of dubious character. The position of Chief Justice and its acquisition is just the type of decision NOT to be rushed. In typical Bush style our idiot President nominated Judge Roberts for an elevated position while everyone else in the country was watching the devastation of New Orleans and surrounding areas and awaiting decisive Federal action.
Here’s your action, folks! Flying about in airplanes acting sober for the cameras (it’s all an act, kiddies) while pushing through a Bush Pioneer for a highly visible, non-refundable promotion as return for helping to pay for the last re-election campaign. Can we talk about priorities? Our Favorite Shrubbery ™ is quick to respond to the needs of his paying constituents; it only took two days after Chief Justice Rehnquist died before elevating Roberts instead of staying the course for Roberts to succeed Justice O’Connor. Two Days; that’s less time than it took him to stuff his inflated ego onto Air Force One to survey the south’s Newest Floodplain. Did I mention “priorities?”
On a separate note: A. Citizen (his or her Nom De Web), at Drinking Liberally in Oakland, is calling Our Favorite Shrubbery™ “President Death,” a fitting epithet in light of all the destruction he’s caused, all the suffering he’s unleashed, and the deaths of so many by under-funding FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers’ levy projects for so many years. The Anti-Bush bandwagon is getting mighty full these days, more like a wagon train, really; and it’s heading East. Pity the fool Republicans who have cast their lots for our fallen American Seizure Ceasar!
The Politics of Death is rapidly becoming Death by Politics as the master plan unravels. But not before Cheney buys a new house; a small one – for only $2.9 million or so…
The Washington Post – a long-standing Republican propaganda outlet – has an interesting piece enumerating the colossal failure of our lip service-oriented administration’s response to Katrina. Even Fox news must acknowledge a “weakness ” which coming from them is an atypical attempt at British-styled understatement. Finally, for the world to scoff at our administration is laid bare, the essential truth is shown: our government is dysfunctional in its pursuit of profit, grandeur and military glory; nothing else has ever mattered. To pay for a war costing trillions of dollars is to gut programs that work; Medicare, FEMA, forestry and even Social Security (if they could have), to pay their cronies – war profiteers, all.
George “W-is-for-worst” Bush has severed a political artery – finally – which almost everyone (excluding the most rabidly delusional) agrees. I. For one, have been waiting such a political event, although I mourn with the rest of our nation the loss of so many and the suffering of the survivors; yet these are the stakes of political games so blithely played out by our fearful leaders. As Georgie plays cowboy on aircraft carriers; as he frowns for the cameras on Air Force One; as he clenches his fists and says, “Bring ‘em on,” people die. Such are the stakes, and our Republican-led administration has never understood this.
As the WaPo article implies but never states, BushCo, in its infinite folly has attempted to our entire government in a megalomaniacal effort to leave the largest possible presidential legacy. George “W-is-for-Washington” Bush harbors an obsession with making his mark on history that has underscored all he has tried to achieve. He started this war because he thought a war president was a great thing to be. He tried to upend Social Security because he wanted to be seen as greater than his predecessors. The same can be said of his merging of agencies to form what may be seen as the largest debacle to date: our currently useless Department of Homeboy Scrutiny. (I’ve always enjoyed the irony of the Republicans – long-time proponents of “small government” – endorsing a plan that has grown our government into one lumbering, multi-headed behemoth.)
But the proverbial bandwagon is a fickle construct, as we are all noting. What the media thinks will sell their precious newspapers, predicated upon poll results, can revert overnight; not to reflect reality but perception as indicated by meaningless surveys. That WaPo today denounces the same people it has unfailingly upheld in the past is insignificant to the enormity of the failure to America that is our current administration. Just as quickly as they jump on, they will fall off – all to sell paper.
One thing I have learned from our endless coverage of Katrina, destined to become one of the worst humanitarian and political crises of our era, is exactly how fragile is civilization. Humanity is far more dependent on machines and systems than on its own muscle and ingenuity. We build systems upon systems and sit back and let them take vital power away from people. Then something comes along and wipes away the careful clockwork that we label progress, leaving behind tragedy.
Our dependency on foreign oil is our national Achilles’ heel. We are just beginning to feel the aftershocks. As oil becomes scarce we’ll see the inevitable slowdown of production across the board as our entire infrastructure depends on oil. In major cities, supply chains depend highly upon the availability of gasoline. A modern metropolis cannot exist without a system of logistics that bring in goods from without, and our means of doing so relies entirely on the oil industry.
We are also beholden to our medical and pharmaceutical industries, as is evident from the many horrible stories coming from the gulf coast; so many people owe their long lives to continual maintenance. When the system of medical procurement breaks down our old and enfeebled are the first casualties. Too, we’re subject as a society to our own caste system of entitlement, too often based on skin color, which determines who are the most likely to suffer during major catastrophic events.
The logistic systems of food and medical supply chains, the system of entitlements are all build on upon another; all rely far too heavily on petroleum. To understand what we call civilization, we must view the interdependency of systems that, in our immense folly, are all relying upon one factor. In essence, we’ve put all our eggs in the same basket. And this basket is fraying as we reach the tipping point in global oil consumption/production ratio, called Peak Oil. And if you don’t think this is a big deal, read this.
Civilization is a very fragile construct; it won’t take much to destroy it. Think on this as you watch endless recycling of the footage over-voiced by flatulent hyperbole. Think on this as you fill the tank and bemoan the cost; as someone I spoke to last week noted: “Soon we’ll have to choose between driving and eating.”
We’re out to play today.
For twenty years my wife and I have been frequenting this place. Our daughter has been here every year for her whole life. This year we had to wait for the last weekend, as money and time were both tight because of our Israel trip last month.
If you’re ever near Chicago or Milwaukee in the summer, The Bristol Faire is a MUST!!