Tannishblog

Leadership on any level is a function of a person’s charisma. Charisma determines levels of trust and respect in relationships. Because we develop lasting impressions within the first few seconds of meeting someone, on a subconscious level, charisma plays a vital role in human discourse.

Since politics is, in essence, a manifestation of human psychology, charisma also plays a large, understated role. Perhaps in this arena more than others, a person’s impressions upon others is paramount to the functions of politics. As such, it is more important how you make others feel than how you think, believe or act - to the degree that actions do not break the emotional illusion invoke through a combination of charisma and careful manipulations.

What invokes such thoughts is the announcement by Barack Obama of his Presidential Exploratory Committee. View the video here. No one in recent years has caught the interest of Americans as he has done. Few since John and Robert Kennedy have had the charisma to reach the hearts of jaded, disenfranchised voters as had this young Senator. Notwithstanding the sporadic media attention, Barack’s message resonates. In his carefree delivery, his innate attraction shines.

Somehow, I get premonitions of doom as I watch him. Both men whom I and others associate with Barack met untimely ends. As I watch the unnerving political machinations of late, I cannot suspend disbelief enough to think we’ve learned any great lessons from the near-martyrization of John F. and Robert Kennedy. To think a man who might make a run at being the first black president, as a Democrat in such hostile times, might sail through unscathed is to ignore the lessons of history.

But, as the man said, there’s always room for the Audacity of Hope. Maybe that could be his campaign slogan…

Uunartoq Qeqertoq: is Inuit for the warming island. That’s what Dennis Schmitt, a 60-year-old Arctic explorer names his new-found island off the coast of Greenland. It used to be part of the continent, so people thought, until the ice bridge melted over the past few years. Mr. Schmitt discovered it during an ocean voyage in 2005.

“We are already in a new era of geography,” said the Arctic explorer Will Steger. “This phenomenon — of an island all of a sudden appearing out of nowhere and the ice melting around it — is a real common phenomenon now.”

In August, Mr. Steger discovered his own new island off the coast of the Norwegian island of Svalbard, high in the polar basin. Glaciers that had surrounded it when his ship passed through only two years earlier were gone this year, leaving only a small island alone in the open ocean.

“We saw it ourselves up there, just how fast the ice is going,” he said.

Of course they’re lying. Global Warming or Climate Change is not really happening. Ask any staunch conservative and they’ll tell you that it’s a grand conspiracy to undermine the economy of the United States. Surely a nation as powerful as ours cannot be beaten in an all-out war, so our enemies, led no doubt by the nefarious French, are attempting a ruse to destroy us through subterfuge. Now the damn Europeans are pretending that the melting of a few little glaciers are a problem.

The sudden appearance of the islands is a symptom of an ice sheet going into retreat, scientists say. Greenland is covered by 630,000 cubic miles of ice, enough water to raise global sea levels by 23 feet.

Carl Egede Boggild, a professor of snow-and-ice physics at the University Center of Svalbard, said Greenland could be losing more than 80 cubic miles of ice per year.

“That corresponds to three times the volume of all the glaciers in the Alps,” Dr. Boggild said. “If you lose that much volume you’d definitely see new islands appear.”

"More lies," says our government. "Earth is a big place, surely the liquefaction of a few ice cubes is insignificant. If it is really happening. You can’t believe everything you hear these days. These people are just alarmist, pinko, greenie Communists."

The abrupt acceleration of melting in Greenland has taken climate scientists by surprise. Tidewater glaciers, which discharge ice into the oceans as they break up in the process called calving, have doubled and tripled in speed all over Greenland. Ice shelves are breaking up, and summertime “glacial earthquakes” have been detected within the ice sheet.

“The general thinking until very recently was that ice sheets don’t react very quickly to climate,” said Martin Truffer, a glaciologist at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. “But that thinking is changing right now, because we’re seeing things that people have thought are impossible.”

[…]

Until recently, the consensus of climate scientists was that the impact of melting polar ice sheets would be negligible over the next 100 years. Ice sheets were thought to be extremely slow in reacting to atmospheric warming.

[…]

“When you look at the ice sheet, the models didn’t work, which puts us on shaky ground,” said Richard Alley, a geosciences professor at Pennsylvania State University.

[…]

“Even a foot rise is a pretty horrible scenario,” said Stephen P. Leatherman, director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University in Miami.

On low-lying and gently sloping land like coastal river deltas, a sea-level rise of just one foot would send water thousands of feet inland. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide make their homes in such deltas; virtually all of coastal Bangladesh lies in the delta of the Ganges River. Over the long term, much larger sea-level rises would render the world’s coastlines unrecognizable, creating a whole new series of islands.

“Here in Miami,” Dr. Leatherman said, “we’re going to have an ocean on both sides of us.”

American university professors? How dare they show their Socialistic tendencies! What we need is a modern McCarthy to put them in their place. That’ll teach them to buck the party line of the glorious Neocon American Century!

And so, the War on Iran has begun with America making the first move. President Bush hasn’t learned, apparently, that taunting Middle-Easterners is not wise. we haven’t finished the first FUBAR and we’re already starting the next.

Start buying survival gear, folks. The apocalypse just got nearer.

.. Well, I’m not sure. Stupid Human Tricks or Law of Unintended Consequences or even Misplaced Priorities are all viable categories…

A woman in California drank herself to death on water. Participating in a contest to "hold your wee for a Wii," she left the radio station complaining of a headache.

"She was crying, and that was the last that anyone had heard from her." It was not immediately known how much water Strange consumed. A preliminary investigation found evidence "consistent with a water intoxication death," said assistant Coroner Ed Smith.

If I were the marketing director for the station, I would feel really lousy. Probably, anyone connected with the ill-fated publicity stunt is feeling bad. Such a mindless tragedy.

"They were small little half-pint bottles, so we thought it was going to be easy," said fellow contestant James Ybarra of Woodland. "They told us if you don’t feel like you can do this, don’t put your health at risk."

Ybarra said he quit after drinking five bottles. "My bladder couldn’t handle it anymore," he added. After he quit, he said, the remaining contestants, including Strange, were given even bigger bottles to drink.

"I was talking to her and she was a nice lady," Ybarra said. "She was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for her kids."

That’s where the misplaced priorities shows up. Personal joy does not come from external sources. For her to think her kids would be happy if they got a new game system is ridiculous. It ended up costing her life and ruining her children’s happiness for some time. Better she stayed home and read a book to them.

First, a snippet from an article at The Olympian Online about banning Al Gore’s film in schools:

"Condoms don’t belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He’s not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who doesn’t want the film shown at all.

"The information that’s being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is," Hardison told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn’t in the DVD."

I’ll show my intolerance again by saying anyone who starts a sentence with "The bible says" has already lost credibility. Whose to say that the bible itself is "a very cockeyed view?" I will. I’m sick of Jesus zombies shoving their morality at others.

So, the Christ cultists in Washington state don’t want their broods (seven kids?!?) to know how much Americans are depleting planetary resources and poisoning their God’s perfect world. Better to mindlessly consume, overpopulate with abandon and invoke the scriptures than face the hard facts of the consequences of human shortsightedness.

Now why does the phrase "suffer the children" come to mind?

Written May 1, 2005 for my deceased blog IdiotSyncharcies. Resurrected here because I just read it again as copied on my daughter's blog , and I was (pardon me for saying so) impressed with my own writing. Somehow, it never got transfered here. Makes me wonder how much other stuff got lost in the move…

My mental tides are ebbing, and I’m feeling wonky about this blogging stuff - again. I wonder if Andrew Sullivan and his ilk ever had doubts.

This thought sets off my inner dialogue. One voice says “Of course they do. They’re just as human as you are.” The other voice just snickers. Damn him. The snickers are getting louder in my mind today. My Inner Brat is on the ascendancy:

“Here you go again,” he sneers, “parading your ignorance for the masses. Or should I say for the four people a day who stumble on your weblog. Nobody is so masochistic as to read your drivel more than once. Anyone with any sense would sprain their carpels trying to click back as fast as possible.”

“Of course,” he adds, “sensible people would not waste their time reading blogs.”

I haven’t introduced my voices yet. Inner Brat speaks my fears and insecurities, as is obvious, what isn’t apparent is he like to use the tone and the cadence of my father’s voice. My other inner voice, whom I’ve never bothered to name, is fairly young. He likes to emulate the calm reasoning tone of the Buddhist books I like to read. His voice is soft, flowing like a breeze, and is all-too-easily overcome by the Brat’s brash delivery of scorn.

The young voice speaks: “One cannot speak for the value others will find in the most mundane things…”

“Yeah, and your voice is the most mundane…”

“…like the cherry blossoms you saw today on your walk. Although it was hailing, the trees were ripe with countless perfect blossoms.”

“Oh, shut up!” Brat starts to squirm; He hates stupid trees. And flowers…sheesh!

Continuing unperturbed, Voice holds my gaze. “You felt the beauty of the blossoms to be more striking because of the hail and the dark clouds, didn’t you? It was the juxtaposition of springtime elements - the blooms and the storms - that spoke to you.”

Brat mutters something about “talking trees,” which I try to ignore. “Yeah,” I say, “I wished I had a camera.”

Voice smiles his older-than-all-of-us smile. “The value of the moment is intrinsic in the knowledge that it cannot be captured. What worth has a flower if it remains always in bloom?”

Brat, having heard enough, shouts. “We were talking about Tannish’s crappy blogging, about his pathetic attempt at journalism.” Fists on hips, he strikes a defiant stance, awaiting my response.

“Your right,” I relent. “I’m fooling myself.” Already I begin to rehearse my official exit from the blogging world. Should I write an entry for each of my two blogs, or should I just write one and a quick link from the other? 

“Make it short, nobody loves long, pitiful good-byes,” Brat snarled as if he can read my mind - which, as a figment of my imagination, he can. Then, so can Voice. 

“Every single artist is just as human as you,” Voice gently states. “Humans doubt themselves from time to time. This is natural. Every artist has a side of them that needs to be appreciated. Your work has merit.” 

“So does toilet paper…” 

“Stick with it and you will make new friends,” Voice finishes. My scepticism showed, while Voice smiles his warmest smile and pats my hand. 

As Brat storms off, muttering in the distance, Voice fades like a Cheshire cat, and I’m left to the ebb and flow of my mental tides alone. “Patience,” I can hear as I attempt to row my metaphorical self to the safety of self-assuredness, bolstered for another week of blogging.

I’ve heard it said that bloggers should specialize to maximize readership. Something about search engine functions and results usually follow. Increased traffic is the ultimate goal, isn’t it? Every one wants to be like Kos.

Not really. While I would like a bit more people to visit regularly, I feel having hoards of readers to be a big responsibility. Soon, it would become a burden as my concern over continued edification, edutainment and enlightenment of virtual masses foreshadow my family life, work life, then life in general. I wish not to become a target for the likes of Bill O’Reilly.

Besides, I’m no specialist. I’m a well-rounded guy. If you could see me stomach these days, you’d agree. Lacking formal edu-ma-kation, I learn haphazardly of many subjects.  My father would say I possess a "smattering of ignorance," (but I’m showing off my issues again… ) Many things interest me, and I like to share them. Mostly, I like to write, to string words together about whatever comes to mind - stream of consciousness stuff. Even stupid things like this post.

If others read this I’m happy. If they return for more, I’m happier. Isn’t the point of life to pursue happiness? To anyone reading: Thank you.

I got a book over the holidays: John Lennon In His Own Words by Ken :Lawrence. It’s a nice but spare collection of quotes from a man I’ve always admired. One quote in particular made me climb out of the recliner to share with my wife.

"Our society is driven by neurotic speed and force, accelerated by greed and the frustration of not being able to live up to the image of men and women we have created for ourselves - an image which is nothing to do with the reality of people. How can we be [an] eternal James Bond or Twiggy and raise three kids on the side? So we pass our kids on to babysitters, nursery and high school teachers - three of the most underpaid positions in our society!…In such an image driven culture, a piece of reality like a child becomes a threat to our very false existence."

–first of a regular column written by John and Yoko,
Sundance magazine. April-May 1972.

Truth is timeless, isn’t it?

I was a bit too young to live Beatlemania. I came to musical awareness a couple years after the group disbanded. In sixth grade I met a guy named Paul who uncannily mimicked McCartney’s voice. Since then I cannot listen to "My Love" by Wings without hearing my friend Paul’s voice crack in the high parts. We both were of that age…He taught me a Liverpublian accent and we used to pretend to be John and Paul for a while. We both took up guitars, his left handed, and mimed to records and such. For me it was the last fling of childhood before the onset of puberty and all attendant complications. Some of the good memories, that.

Since then, I have gathered a modest collection of Beatle books and read them all. To my family, I’m a bit of an expert. I’ve taught myself guitar from their songbooks, learned songwriting from their example, enriched my life through such efforts. To hear their music, all I need is to concentrate, they’re stored forever in my synapses. As I typed the preceding sentence, "Anytime At All" cued up in my head… "All you gotta do is call / And I’ll be there…" As my daughter grew, I made sure to instill a love of Beatles in her heart. She’s collected all the British recording in CD, and I’m proud. A bit of a personal legacy she may share in her future. Let the music live on…

These days I don’t obsess anymore. It’s a gentle, mature kind of fandom, but John and his mates are still a part of me. Amazing, really - I never met him - how a single person can alter history, affect so many people and infect them with fond memories. It’s magic.

"Absolutely we’re winning." These soon-to-be-famous-last-words escaped he lips of our president in October of last year. What he doesn’t mention is the escalating cost of war in general (never an inexpensive proposition) and this war in particular (now well past $100,000 for every person in the US. How many people are you supporting? How would you pay a bill that large?) Some costs, of course, can never be recovered, mainly the cost in blood and suffering.

From Dahr Jamail:

According to the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes, service members with "a psychiatric disorder in remission, or whose residual symptoms do not impair duty performance" may be considered for duty downrange. It lists post-traumatic stress disorder as a "treatable" problem.

Steve Robinson, director of Veterans Affairs for Veterans for America told IPS correspondent Aaron Glantz that "as a layman and a former soldier I think that’s ridiculous."

"If I’ve got a soldier who’s on Ambien to go to sleep and Seroquel and Qanapin and all kinds of other psychotropic meds, I don’t want them to have a weapon in their hand and to be part of my team because they’re a risk to themselves and to others," he said. "But apparently, the military has its own view of how well a soldier can function under those conditions, and is gambling that they can be successful."

From CNN:

The problem is larger than mere displacement, a U.N. news release states, as women are increasingly forced to resort to prostitution and reports of child labor problems are on the rise…

"The longer this conflict goes on, the more difficult it becomes for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced, and the communities that are trying to help them — both inside and outside Iraq," U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a Monday news release. "The burden on host communities and governments in the region is enormous."

According to UNHCR estimates, there are between 500,000 and 1 million refugees in Syria; about 700,000 in Jordan; about 80,000 in Egypt; and about 40,000 in Lebanon. Turkey is hosting an unknown number of Iraqis, the news release states.

But the war could last years longer, according to the NY Times

The new American operational commander in Iraq said Sunday that even with the additional American troops likely to be deployed in Baghdad under President Bush’s new war strategy it might take another “two or three years” for American and Iraqi forces to gain the upper hand in the war.

The commander, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, assumed day-to-day control of war operations last month in the first step of a makeover of the American military hierarchy here. In his first lengthy meeting with reporters, General Odierno, 52, struck a cautious note about American prospects, saying much will depend on whether commanders can show enough progress to stem eroding support in the United States for the war.

“I believe the American people, if they feel we are making progress, they will have the patience,” he said. But right now, he added, “I think the frustration is that they think we are not making progress.”

[…]

He said he understood the failing confidence among Americans, including some of those who had lost sons and daughters here, that the war was worthwhile. The general’s own son, Capt. Anthony Odierno, a 28-year-old West Point graduate, lost an arm when a bomb detonated during a patrol in Baghdad in 2004.

As a father as well as a commander, the general said, he did not doubt the sacrifices had been justified. “I believe it’s worth it,” he said.

He’s on duty, what else can he say? He wants his promotion to full general to go through. He’s a professional soldier, he understands that having an opinion is not required to do his job.

We’re not in Iraq to stop Terrorism. We’ve made it a terrorists playground and training field. We’re not in Iraq to spread Democracy. A key component of Democracies is it’s viral nature - it spreads itself. The common citizen must accept it before it will work. Democracy spreads from the bottom up. Forcing it upon an unwilling populace is top-down Democracy which is dysfunctional.

No. We’re in Iraq to secure oil for the West. We’re in Afghanistan to build military bases atop the Caspian Sea oil pipeline. We’ve build the largest military complex in the world in Iraq, and we’re there for the long haul. We’re exchanging blood for oil and to our leaders, it doesn’t matter how much blood is spent. Nor does it matter whose blood is spent - so long as it is a stranger’s.

Is it worth it? Hell, no!

This morning I think about how my blog has lost some of it's fire since the Democratic sweep last November. While the holidays kept us busy, the punditry paused until the 110th circus begins. Myself, I've about exhausted my positions on the Anti-Bush front, and my beating the pulpit of how screwed up society is only goes so far. It all seems so trite in retrospect. I struggle to find something that engages my muse.

There's so much that needs discussion. Unfortunately, I lack insight as I excel in ignorance. But sometimes a cursory view can tell a deep story without effort. So I assemble a montage of words to assemble a picture:

"I kept thinking how life is cheap, how so many innocent people are killed."
HADI FARIS, whose son Hamza, 11, was one of 34 boys killed in a 2005 suicide bombing in Baghdad.*

[…]

The Bush administration is expected to announce next week a major step forward in the building of the country’s first new nuclear warhead in nearly two decades. It will propose combining elements of competing designs from two weapons laboratories in an approach that some experts argue is untested and risky.

The new weapon would not add to but replace the nation’s existing arsenal of aging warheads, with a new generation meant to be sturdier, more reliable, safer from accidental detonation and more secure from theft by terrorists.*

[…]

"This is the South, so of course everybody's going to say it was some white guy shooting a black guy," said Dr. Terry Welke, the Calcasieu Parish coroner who ruled that Washington killed himself.**

[…]

US Army urges dead to re-enlist.***

[…]

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.****

[…]

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.*****

People are worried about Iraq and it's citizens, the future of warfare and prospects of nuclear aggression, the real meaning behind the whole mess America is in. They take in stride the latent racism and disharmony within our borders. They show resignation over problems they didn't create and cannot control. The world stage and it's players are disconnected from the people. Perhaps this has always been true.

        *Source: NY Times
      **Source: CNN
    ***Source: BBC News
  ****Source: The Independent
*****Source: Times Online