Some musings ...
There is variation in the cosmos ... the cosmos being everything, and the universe being everything we know about.
If there were no variation in the cosmos, there would be uniformity.
Therefore there has to be "at least two states" of whatever there is.
Let us call the first state of the "at least two states", "on" and represent it with the value "1" or "one". Lets then call the second state of the "at least two states", "off" and represent the value "0" or zero.
Ah yes, binary math ... if we can combine 1's and 0's ...
Let us surmise that there is no way to combine or alter the relationship between the separate states of the "at least two states". Then there would be no activity in the cosmos.
Therefore there has to be at least some way to combine or alter the relationship between the separate states of the "at least two states".
If at any time their ceased to be a way to alter the relationship of whatever states existed of the "at least two states", activity would stop.
Whenever the conditions exist for the "at least two states" to alter their relationship, they do -- having the potential of becoming something different. If, in fact another "new state" is formed, than the above statements hold true for this "new state" and it's relationship to the prior existing states of the "at least two states".
If the forming of a "new state" eliminated variation in the cosmos, uniformity would exist and activity would stop. Therefore we can surmise that multiple items in "at least two states" exist simultaneously. And that being in one of "at least two states" applies to a set of items having that characteristic. Thus we have a transcending characteristic across multiple items.
We can surmise that "new state" and its relationship with the "at least two states" -- a set of which the "new state" is now a member -- can form new patterns of states and new patterns of relationships that did not exist prior to the existence of the new states -- even though the potential existed for their existence to be realized in their coming into existence.
We can also surmise that the cosmos has not reached its limit of altering relationships between multiple items with variations in being characterized as one of "at least two states", thereby creating new items with a "new state".
In this process, existence builds upon itself.
And as the 0 and 1 of binary math has the potential for expressing all real numbers, existence has the potential of all that is real.
Note: I will be working on this for awhile ...
----------------
Footnotes:
surmise v. an idea or thought of something as being possible or likely.
surmise. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/surmise (accessed: December 25, 2006).
Monday, December 25, 2006
Friday, December 22, 2006
The narrative of existence ...
Our awareness creates and the stores a narrative of our existence in our brain. This narrative is given us by the those we turn to as children for information. It's "purpose" (utility for survival) is to allow us to connect the sensory and other forms of "information" we receive in the present to some pattern set, providing a means of classifying and coordinating the present ... and thereby organizing our lives coherently.
This narrative of our existence has become a key component in evolution's struggle for survival, for the ongoingness of human life ... and conceivably with the unleashing of nuclear energy, of life itself on this planet.
Different groups of human beings have different narratives encoded in their brains. We are watching the cataclysmic clash of different narratives in Iraq as this is being written.
The shear absurdity of thinking people are born with a narrative for democracy and freedom as defined by Western Capitalism encoded in them, is ... well, is so far beyond rational thought that only an ideologue would put forward the concept.
Our whole recorded history demonstrates the importance of encoding the conventional wisdom of a culture in the children of that culture WHILE they are still children, and recognizes the difficulty in changing that encoded narrative later in life.
More to come ...
This narrative of our existence has become a key component in evolution's struggle for survival, for the ongoingness of human life ... and conceivably with the unleashing of nuclear energy, of life itself on this planet.
Different groups of human beings have different narratives encoded in their brains. We are watching the cataclysmic clash of different narratives in Iraq as this is being written.
The shear absurdity of thinking people are born with a narrative for democracy and freedom as defined by Western Capitalism encoded in them, is ... well, is so far beyond rational thought that only an ideologue would put forward the concept.
Our whole recorded history demonstrates the importance of encoding the conventional wisdom of a culture in the children of that culture WHILE they are still children, and recognizes the difficulty in changing that encoded narrative later in life.
More to come ...
As a Christian Transcendental Existentialist ...
Disclosure ... I think of myself as a Christian transcendental existentialist ... who does NOT believe in the necessity of a supreme being in the Biblical (King James Version - KJV) sense of that identity.
Let us begin ...
I believe my interpretation of John 1:1-4:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
... which is that the potential of existence existed at the beginning, whatever that "beginning" was (is?)
... which deals with the idea that "what is" came out of "what was" and "what will be", will come out of "what is" ... which of course is the "transcendental" part ...
Pause
Let us begin ...
I believe my interpretation of John 1:1-4:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
... which is that the potential of existence existed at the beginning, whatever that "beginning" was (is?)
... which deals with the idea that "what is" came out of "what was" and "what will be", will come out of "what is" ... which of course is the "transcendental" part ...
Pause
Though we perceive existence (are aware of -- "awareness" relative to "existence" is important to existentialists ... like in which comes first, the chicken or the egg?) as ongoing -- past, present, future -- the reality of the cosmos does not HAVE to be in that "form". It could be like the infinity symbol and we are (I am?) simply passing along it's endless band ... or multiple bands with or without multiple dimensions.
However ... I experience my existence as ongoing -- past, present, future ... in a universe that is ongoing.
And -- this is my interpretation of Kierkegaard's leap of faith -- I choose to believe that my existence and that of the universe has meaning in its unfolding "ongoingness".
I am engaged in a search for that meaning.
From Luke 17:20-21 (King James Version, New Testament): Note: "He" is Jesus.
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
I find the meaning of my existence, including my awareness of experiencing my existence, within myself. I come to "understand" that meaning by sharing my awareness with others as they share theirs with me.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20
If the sharing of experience is done in the spirit of pursuing the truth (as in the blind men and the elephant) it frees us from the mistakes of our past.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32
More to come ...
ncswede
Footnotes:
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kierkegard
As tiny url:
All Biblical quotations are taken from:
Pause
Putting aside the issue of dealing with our mistakes for a moment ...
Fear ... how do I conquer fear?
As a child I drew close to a parent or my older brother as I walked through the forest at night.
Now when I have time to think, I "assess" the situation ahead and "calculate" whether or not I can handle it ... then continue or turn aside.
When caught up without warning, the adrenalin kicks in and I react. (One of the reasons I love the Interior Alaska wilderness ... the adrenalin high is awesome because I have not been there long enough to have being in that environment become "normal". The individuals I REALLY admire are like the mountain climbers, and the rock climbers. I can get another shot of adrenalin simply by taking another step further into the bush.)
But what happens to a person in the devastation of a disaster such as a hurricane, a drought, an earthquake, ... war ... when the person is caught up in something so vast and consuming that every last vestige of hope in it ever getting better again is taken from him/her?
Or something close and personal and singular like the death of one's child ...
What then?
What rekindles the flame of the human spirit, what rekindles hope?
For me it is faith ... faith that "this to", whatever it is ... will have meaning as I (we) go on.
And I do not mean that in the sense that it is "a lesson to be learned" ...
And it does not mean that I could or would retain my faith if I were in the middle of a seemingly unending disaster ... I can't say because I have lived such a "blessed" life.
I can only discuss these issues from the perspective of my perception ... which is NOT the whole elephant by any means.
But faith was instilled in me as a child ... and it has never left me.
Now I don't believe in some Supreme Being acting as producer and director of the "Show On Earth" ... mostly because it ain't "the greatest" for whole bunches of people.
But I do choose to believe that what is happening/unfolding (living) has meaning in its becoming what it does become ... and that what I do now does affect the outcome ... (as in chaos theory of the small pebble being able to alter the course of the boulder as it starts to roll down the hill ... or as Jesus taught, "if you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move a mountain"[sic].)
And in this process of living, I make mistakes ...
Pause
I'm going to defer my discussions of "mistakes" (sin?) for now ... again.
I was reading in Gilson, Langan, & Maurer's RECENT PHILOSOPHY: Hegel to the Present last night in bed about the emergence of Existentialism with the works of Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche.
"Nietzsche's greatness lies in his discovery of the individual existent as the unequivocal "lieu" of historical Being's coming-to-be"
This is to me the incredible excitement of existentialism. "I" and my awareness of "I" comes out of existence. Existence does NOT come out of awareness.
I reject the nihilism of Nietzsche by accepting faith, not specifically in God as Kierkegaard did, but in meaning ... and not in coming out of a past purpose but going toward a future in which I can and do participate meaningfully (as chaos theory demonstrates) out of my awareness ... by choosing what I believe ought to be and acting to make it what is.
And that choice is mine to make, as a result of searching for meaning within my own experience ... that I validate in concert with others to the extent that I am willing to be truthful (honest) about my own experience.
I find the roots of this incredibly exciting point of view in the teachings of Jesus ... which itself has roots in other teachings ... but I came to my point of view by believing that what Jesus taught has relevance for my life ... and exploring Jesus' meaning relative to my experience.
An aside: Y'know ... that almost 6,000 mile journey across the North American continent taught me one thing ... I have enormous liberty in a culture based on Judeo-Christian values. Not everyone in that space has the same freedom to come and go as I do for numerous reasons ... I think that freedom should be expanding, not shrinking. But how to do it? That's what we should talk about at some point. Is there any other place on our planet where a relatively poor, relatively old person such as myself can have this much freedom? I love it so!!!
ncswede
Footnote:
nilihism n- an extreme form of skepticism: the denial of all real existence or the possibility of an objective basis for truth.
nihilism. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1). Retrieved December 05, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nihilism
lieu n- Note this is the French word commonly translated as "place", and here meaning the point of Being, not as an idea put as a real center of awareness/experience in the cosmos that has arisen out of (from the ground of) existence.
Pause
If we are not honest with each other ... telling each other the truth about ourselves ... not worrying about our mistakes because all of us make mistakes (For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 New Testament, King James Version, www.blueletterbible.org)... then we cannot discover the meaning of our existence unfolding into the future. Because the potential of our future is with us here and now.
So, when those in authority lie to us ... they lead us astray from the discovery of the true meaning of our existence. That's the same for parents who do not tell their children (at the appropriate time) what is happening to their bodies and minds as they grow older. That's the same for teachers who do not provide the actual history of our world. That's for politicians who say one thing to get elected and another once elected. Or leaders who lie us into a war of their choosing. Or even friends who do not tell one another how they really feel about the way we treat each other.
An interesting experiment is having people guess the number of jelly beans in a jar. The larger the number of people guessing, the closer the average of all the guesses is to the actual number in the jar ... which makes a lot of sense.
Pause
A couple of ideas from Jesus ... that the Kingdom of God is within us (like, within ME) ... and Heaven is it's the realization of it's (the "Kingdom's) potential ...
I can readliy wrap these ideas into the transcendentally evolving ongoingness of existence ... toward (never ending) something positive ...
All of life responds positively to the nuturing of life ... and the seemingly limitless diversity of life within a given environment (bounded only by that environment ... which can in fact interact randomly (chaotically) with events overlapping from other systems/environments to expand possibilities) ...
So life is in the process of exploring all its options in its setting ... and expanding into those that are positive for one form or another ... which may be negative for another form of life ...
But then ... we humans ... seem to be able to build new environments to accentuate the positive ...
Fascinating ... to say the least.
PauseInvitation to Philosophy Issues and Options - Eighth Edition,
by: Stanley M. Honer, Mt. San Antonio College, Emeritus; Thomas C. Hunt, Mt. San Antonio College, Emeritus; and Dennis L. Okholm, Wheaton College
There is a section on Existentialism in Chapter 4 Epistemology: How We Know. It asserts the nihilistic view that all knowledge is subjective and therefore "there is nothing stable or objective about" knowledge.
It does go on with the view of religious existentialists as "likely to argue that human beings cannot know; they can simply believe. And belief is a nonrational 'leap of faith.'"
YES!!! I choose to believe ... and to work out my "knowledge" for forming my belief out of an honest dialogue with others.
And it is not the past governing the future put the future forming out of the present ... a future that I can affect by my choices. I do not disregard the past, put I m not bound by it either. I can decide that "what is" is NOT "what ought to be".
To be continued in Part II ...
Friday, December 01, 2006
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Life has purpose
From dictionary.com we learn the definition of "purpose":
If we plant a carrot seed we anticipate getting a carrot if we nuture its growth.
But we cannot say that life is "the" or even "a" purpose of the cosmos. There is no reason to believe that life developed other than because it was the possible outcome that occurred. Life didn't "have" to happen. It "did" happen.
But once it happened and the functionality—the ongoing capability—of life to replicate biochemical events persisted long enough for the existence of life to produce the awareness of existence then human life took on purpose and meaning:
To extrapolate the reverse sequence of purpose producing awareness producing existence as in the mind of God ... is what has gotten the human race into trouble ... because it can be clearly seen that we attribute OUR purposes to our Gods. We imbue our Gods with our purposes ... and therein lies the crux of our error.
For as the existentialist says, it matters not whether God exists or doesn't exist, for we are aware of our existence and not of God.
It's like the foxhole prayer ... everyone prays it (or most everyone). Those who survive gives thanks to God. Those who don't survive, we don't hear from.
More to come.
n 1: an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions;
purpose. (n.d.). WordNet® 2.0. Retrieved November 18, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/purpose
If we plant a carrot seed we anticipate getting a carrot if we nuture its growth.
But we cannot say that life is "the" or even "a" purpose of the cosmos. There is no reason to believe that life developed other than because it was the possible outcome that occurred. Life didn't "have" to happen. It "did" happen.
But once it happened and the functionality—the ongoing capability—of life to replicate biochemical events persisted long enough for the existence of life to produce the awareness of existence then human life took on purpose and meaning:
meaning n 2: the end, purpose, or significance of something: What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of this intrusion?Existence preceeds awareness and awareness preceeds purpose ... for having a purpose is the anticipation of an outcome of which one must be aware—even if it is imaginary.
meaning. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1). Retrieved November 18, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/meaning
To extrapolate the reverse sequence of purpose producing awareness producing existence as in the mind of God ... is what has gotten the human race into trouble ... because it can be clearly seen that we attribute OUR purposes to our Gods. We imbue our Gods with our purposes ... and therein lies the crux of our error.
For as the existentialist says, it matters not whether God exists or doesn't exist, for we are aware of our existence and not of God.
It's like the foxhole prayer ... everyone prays it (or most everyone). Those who survive gives thanks to God. Those who don't survive, we don't hear from.
More to come.
Existence preceeds awareness ...
Existence preceeds awareness ... so what?
So that is the defining understanding of our experience ... and why I call myself an existentialist.
There was no "awareness" that "produced/created" existence. Existence produced awareness. Awareness "arose" out of the consistent replication of biochemical events.
This not so hard to fathom now that we know that simple states of "on" and "off" or "1" and "0" can produce in their complex combinations and recombining of combinations into new combinations, the computer program (software) as separate from yet dependent upon the actual computer equipment (hardware).
And it is the consistent functioning of the underlying operating system (Mac OS, Windows XP, DOS, Unix ... ) that allows the building of higher levels of integrated software.
Some thoughts ...
There has to be more than one state of energy/matter ... because with only one state, we would have uniformity throughout the universe/cosmos.
What "is" comes out of what "was". Which also means that what is going on now is the seeded ground from which the future arises. Even if there was a "beginning" preceeded by "nothing", that beginning arose out of that nothing ... and that is why I am a transcendalist ... or a transcendental existentialist.
What we have learned form chaos theory is that even the smallest act can have a huge effect on future events ... like the pebble at the top of mountain diverting the bloulder as it starts to roll down the mountainside and changing where it will wind up at the bottom; therefore everything I do—and everyone of us—is important.
Note: I use "universe" to denote the known and "cosmos" to denote everything, the known and the unknown.
So that is the defining understanding of our experience ... and why I call myself an existentialist.
There was no "awareness" that "produced/created" existence. Existence produced awareness. Awareness "arose" out of the consistent replication of biochemical events.
This not so hard to fathom now that we know that simple states of "on" and "off" or "1" and "0" can produce in their complex combinations and recombining of combinations into new combinations, the computer program (software) as separate from yet dependent upon the actual computer equipment (hardware).
And it is the consistent functioning of the underlying operating system (Mac OS, Windows XP, DOS, Unix ... ) that allows the building of higher levels of integrated software.
Some thoughts ...
There has to be more than one state of energy/matter ... because with only one state, we would have uniformity throughout the universe/cosmos.
What "is" comes out of what "was". Which also means that what is going on now is the seeded ground from which the future arises. Even if there was a "beginning" preceeded by "nothing", that beginning arose out of that nothing ... and that is why I am a transcendalist ... or a transcendental existentialist.
What we have learned form chaos theory is that even the smallest act can have a huge effect on future events ... like the pebble at the top of mountain diverting the bloulder as it starts to roll down the mountainside and changing where it will wind up at the bottom; therefore everything I do—and everyone of us—is important.
Note: I use "universe" to denote the known and "cosmos" to denote everything, the known and the unknown.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Notes on the journey ... Friday, November 17, 2006
I'm back in New Jersey. I flew in from Alaska on the evening of November 7 in time to vote.
I'm chronicling my trip to Interior Alaska—which started when I left for Florida on Friday, September 8—over on my Steese Review blog.
Here I want to restart my musings about cultural/economic/political/social stuff affecting my corner of the world ... for which, by the way, there was an excellent post by Jeff Madrick over on The Huffington Post titled "Milton Friedman: Not A Man For All Seasons". I recommend reading it ... plus Tim Sanders' post "Bury Friedman's Concept Of A Good Company", and David Goldstein's "On Milton Friedman, Comment Spam, and the Amorality of the Market", both also on The Huffington Post.
That election was something else, wasn't it? Wow! And then James Carville has the audacity to criticize Howard Dean's leadership of the Democratic National Committee. Carville has clearly lost it, whatever it was that he had. Read the straight scoop about Dean's leadership in the Kansas City Star.
Now we get to see what happens ... and it still may come to invoking Jack Cafferty's (of CNN) solution and impose term limits on everyone in Congress who was there prior to this last election.
Bush? Rove? They're totally exposed as carnival shills or clowns ... depending on your point of view.
But like I said, I'll watch how it unfolds ... see what happens when the new Congress convenes in January ... that's not too long for me, though it sure as hell is an ungodly long time for those in the military fighting and dying and getting wounded for what is now pretty much acknowledged as a lie and a mistake.
In the interim I'm going to spend some time letting my emerging understanding of the cosmos take shape here.
I'm chronicling my trip to Interior Alaska—which started when I left for Florida on Friday, September 8—over on my Steese Review blog.
Here I want to restart my musings about cultural/economic/political/social stuff affecting my corner of the world ... for which, by the way, there was an excellent post by Jeff Madrick over on The Huffington Post titled "Milton Friedman: Not A Man For All Seasons". I recommend reading it ... plus Tim Sanders' post "Bury Friedman's Concept Of A Good Company", and David Goldstein's "On Milton Friedman, Comment Spam, and the Amorality of the Market", both also on The Huffington Post.
That election was something else, wasn't it? Wow! And then James Carville has the audacity to criticize Howard Dean's leadership of the Democratic National Committee. Carville has clearly lost it, whatever it was that he had. Read the straight scoop about Dean's leadership in the Kansas City Star.
Now we get to see what happens ... and it still may come to invoking Jack Cafferty's (of CNN) solution and impose term limits on everyone in Congress who was there prior to this last election.
Bush? Rove? They're totally exposed as carnival shills or clowns ... depending on your point of view.
But like I said, I'll watch how it unfolds ... see what happens when the new Congress convenes in January ... that's not too long for me, though it sure as hell is an ungodly long time for those in the military fighting and dying and getting wounded for what is now pretty much acknowledged as a lie and a mistake.
In the interim I'm going to spend some time letting my emerging understanding of the cosmos take shape here.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
It's the incompetence, stupid.
Y'know, watching Hezbollah (Hizbullah) going about its business rebuilding Southern Lebanon ... after watching Haliburton go about our business rebuilding Iraq ... it struck me that something has changed in the good ol' can-do spirit of these United States of America ... and I don't think it has been with the workers.
I think the workers -- also known as, "the people" -- have been working as hard, if not harder, as before ... and with the same ol' "make-do with what you got to get ahead" attitude as before ... even though we -- the people -- have been falling behind.
What is it then? If it ain't "the people"?
Yup, you guessed it ... it's the incompetence of the brilliant idiots at the top -- also known as "our leaders".
We seem to have gotten to a point in our history -- once again -- where our "leaders" have figured out that by lying to us, they can stay in power ... 'cuz staying in power and reaping the bennies (the wealth) that they can suck up into their pockets from the hard work of the people ... is what they are all about. Turning what was once the premier middle-class country into another banana republic is OK with these leaders -- as long as they are the ones at the top.
And you see, after a few generations of sucking up the wealth produced by the hard work of the American people, they have forgotten what hard work is ... and measure the worth of their group's "employees" by the loyalty of these employees ("you're doing a heck of a job, Brownie") rather than by the competence of the employee ... 'cuz you can always get someone to do the work, you just have to stay in control of the wealth produced by the work.
Trouble with this is, that as the generations of inbreeding roll along ... well, sooner or later you get a GW in charge ... well, not REALLY in charge, but he thinks he is and that is dangerous enough ... but it becomes ALL about loyalty and very little about competence, and ... well, look around ... this is what you get.
Our nation is going to hell in the handbasket of men and women who care more about accumulating personal wealth and power than they do about the well-being of our nation. And for many of them now it is not because they know better. All they know as children of children of children of the rich is rewarding loyalty to their power, to perpetuate the control of the wealth produced by the labor of others.
AND it IS biting us in the butt.
I think the workers -- also known as, "the people" -- have been working as hard, if not harder, as before ... and with the same ol' "make-do with what you got to get ahead" attitude as before ... even though we -- the people -- have been falling behind.
What is it then? If it ain't "the people"?
Yup, you guessed it ... it's the incompetence of the brilliant idiots at the top -- also known as "our leaders".
We seem to have gotten to a point in our history -- once again -- where our "leaders" have figured out that by lying to us, they can stay in power ... 'cuz staying in power and reaping the bennies (the wealth) that they can suck up into their pockets from the hard work of the people ... is what they are all about. Turning what was once the premier middle-class country into another banana republic is OK with these leaders -- as long as they are the ones at the top.
And you see, after a few generations of sucking up the wealth produced by the hard work of the American people, they have forgotten what hard work is ... and measure the worth of their group's "employees" by the loyalty of these employees ("you're doing a heck of a job, Brownie") rather than by the competence of the employee ... 'cuz you can always get someone to do the work, you just have to stay in control of the wealth produced by the work.
Trouble with this is, that as the generations of inbreeding roll along ... well, sooner or later you get a GW in charge ... well, not REALLY in charge, but he thinks he is and that is dangerous enough ... but it becomes ALL about loyalty and very little about competence, and ... well, look around ... this is what you get.
Our nation is going to hell in the handbasket of men and women who care more about accumulating personal wealth and power than they do about the well-being of our nation. And for many of them now it is not because they know better. All they know as children of children of children of the rich is rewarding loyalty to their power, to perpetuate the control of the wealth produced by the labor of others.
AND it IS biting us in the butt.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
The incompetence of President Bush is sickening
I’ve been watching “When the Levees Broke” today ... and I am sickened by the ineptitude shown by my federal government under GW’s leadership.
The statement by one of the presenters that FEMA and the Homeland Security Department acted as if the levees had NOT breeched, was particularly insightful. The top echelons of the federal government—yes, including President Bush as was obvious from his itinerary during the first few days of the disaster—did not have a clue as to what had happened, nor its severity.
And while the hurricane itself was an “act of God”—as we designate natural events, usually disasters—the aftermath was not.
I can think of no other situation where a “crew” failed so miserably that they would then be allowed to continue doing ANYTHING of importance. I mean, get real, when the ship sails onto the reef, don’t we blame the captain? The captain of Exxon Valdez, John Hazelwood, wasn’t even on the bridge when it stuck Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef ... but we all knew it was his responsibility.
You see, the hurricane wasn’t the “reef” we hit ... our “reef” as a nation was the aftermath and our running into it was our failure to send the help the people obviously needed ... obvious to even the most causal observer on the ground at the time.
Brownie’s resumé was that of a “valet to the oil industry” before being appointed to head FEMA.
The problem with the Bushies is that they equate loyalty to the Bush family with competence.
And Bush is saying, in effect, “Trust me to make a silk purse out of the pig’s ear I have bitten off in Iraq.” Isn’t it OBVIOUS by now, one year after Katrina struck New Orleans, that GW has bitten off more than he can chew? (to mix metaphors a tad)
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Rummy's talking about WWII ...
OK, let’s take a look at WWII ... the war we won.
I. The president was a Democrat: Franklin Delano Roosevelt or FDR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt
“In July 1941, Roosevelt ordered Secretary of War Henry Stimson to begin planning for total American military involvement. The resulting “Victory Program,” under the direction of Albert Wedemeyer, provided the President with the estimates necessary for the total mobilization of manpower, industry, and logistics to defeat the “potential enemies” of the United States.”
II. FDR selected General George Marshall to lead the military into war—a war we won, by the way:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Marshall
“On September 1 1939, the very start of World War II in Europe, he was selected by Franklin D. Roosevelt to be Army Chief of Staff, a position he held until 1945. In 1944, became the first U.S. General to be awarded 5-star rank, otherwise known as General of the Army. This position is the American equivalent in rank to Field Marshal. Marshall once joked that he was glad the U.S. never created a ‘Field Marshal’ rank during World War II, since he would then have to be addressed as ‘Marshal Marshall’.
“During World War II, Marshall was instrumental in getting the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps reorganized and ready for combat. Marshall wrote the document that would become the central strategy for all Allied operations in Europe, selected Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Commander in Europe, and designed Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy.”
III. Harry S. Truman as a Senator (another Democrat) made sure we got a bang for our taxpayers buck—in the war we won (but I repeat myself shamelessly):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman#Truman_Co mmittee
“He gained fame and respect when his preparedness committee (popularly known as the ‘Truman Committee’ ) investigated the scandal of military wastefulness by exposing fraud and mismanagement. His advocacy of common-sense cost-saving measures for the military attracted much attention. Although some feared the Committee would hurt war morale, it was considered a success and is reported to have saved at least $11 billion.”
The problem with the Bush Adminsitration is that they think competence is loyalty to them. And the Republican Party is still the party for what big business wants and opposed to what we the people need.
I wish they would have run this war like WWII ... maybe we’d be winning. Selecting competent generals to fight the war and having strong oversight to eliminate egregious fraud would have made a HUGE difference ... don’t you think? That is, if we were fighting the right enemy—in the first place.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Balancing left and right wings ...
Some thoughts ...
If the ruling oligarchy of our country gets us working stiffs to start elbowing each other in pursuit of individual ownership AND lose sight of the power of consensus among workers on labor issues, then we struggle from weakness against their strength ... and the balance of the "dialectic" inherent in capitalism between asset capital plus knowledge capital on one hand vs. labor on the other is thrown out of kilter toward wealth as power ...
I believe it is the potential win-win game of the marketplace that energizes capitalism ... when and where both sides believe they get what they want ... which is possible in the market ... where the seller gets his/her price and the buyer gets his/her product or service ... both are satisfied ... and will trade with each other again.
The problems arise when either side gets the upper hand.
But trying to have a so-called "free" market is impossible as long as there are significant externalities (costs to the marketing comunity that are unpaid out of the price of goods and services or rents ... such as we see in the tobacco companies avoiding the costs of health care for the diseases smoking and second-hand smoke cause).
What we are left with is reason and attempting to have as rational a market as possible.
The gibbersih of the free market and the Invisible Hand taking care of the common good is simply a ploy by the oligarchy to amass wealth and power ... sending the economy into a tailspin sooner or later due to the imbalance of power ... as plane that has lost a wing on the left.
It is also true if labor gets the upper hand and too much power ... losing the wing on the right.
If the ruling oligarchy of our country gets us working stiffs to start elbowing each other in pursuit of individual ownership AND lose sight of the power of consensus among workers on labor issues, then we struggle from weakness against their strength ... and the balance of the "dialectic" inherent in capitalism between asset capital plus knowledge capital on one hand vs. labor on the other is thrown out of kilter toward wealth as power ...
I believe it is the potential win-win game of the marketplace that energizes capitalism ... when and where both sides believe they get what they want ... which is possible in the market ... where the seller gets his/her price and the buyer gets his/her product or service ... both are satisfied ... and will trade with each other again.
The problems arise when either side gets the upper hand.
But trying to have a so-called "free" market is impossible as long as there are significant externalities (costs to the marketing comunity that are unpaid out of the price of goods and services or rents ... such as we see in the tobacco companies avoiding the costs of health care for the diseases smoking and second-hand smoke cause).
What we are left with is reason and attempting to have as rational a market as possible.
The gibbersih of the free market and the Invisible Hand taking care of the common good is simply a ploy by the oligarchy to amass wealth and power ... sending the economy into a tailspin sooner or later due to the imbalance of power ... as plane that has lost a wing on the left.
It is also true if labor gets the upper hand and too much power ... losing the wing on the right.
Note: Posted origianlly as a comment on the Vanity Fair website: V.F. Dish
http://boards.vanityfair.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1&start=0
under thread, "In response to minimum wage righties push for $2.13 an hour"
http://boards.vanityfair.com/thread.jspa?threadID=15802&tstart=0
Posted: Aug 18, 2006 9:43 AM
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Some hypotheses ...
Freedom comes when leaders aka centers of power have to contend for the loyalty of the people rather than command it ... and within the range of options under the umbrella (within the spheres of influence) of these contending leaders, the individual can make choices.
The most frightening thing to any leader who seeks power is the freedom of people not to be loyal to a leader.
Neither democracy nor the marketplace are zero sum games—win-lose. They are win-win games if played rationally, and that is why they create their own energy.
And...
It isn't profits that drag down the marketplace. It is the externalities—the costs not paid for out of the profits—that drag down the marketplace.
The main fault of capitalism is its tendency to legitimatize externalities. While monopolies are always a problem, they are not in any way market capitalism. It is the desire of owners to avoid paying the real (rational) costs of producing goods and services that lead to them forming monopolies, i.e. controlling the marketpalce.
There is no such thing as a free market. There can be more or less rational markets depending on how well they pay the costs of producing the goods and services sold and of the market itself in rents.
The most frightening thing to any leader who seeks power is the freedom of people not to be loyal to a leader.
Neither democracy nor the marketplace are zero sum games—win-lose. They are win-win games if played rationally, and that is why they create their own energy.
And...
It isn't profits that drag down the marketplace. It is the externalities—the costs not paid for out of the profits—that drag down the marketplace.
The main fault of capitalism is its tendency to legitimatize externalities. While monopolies are always a problem, they are not in any way market capitalism. It is the desire of owners to avoid paying the real (rational) costs of producing goods and services that lead to them forming monopolies, i.e. controlling the marketpalce.
There is no such thing as a free market. There can be more or less rational markets depending on how well they pay the costs of producing the goods and services sold and of the market itself in rents.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
I hear the jellyfish are making a comeback.
www.truthdig.com comment #18309 by Hilding Lindquist on 8/15 at 4:21 am
What should be clear to the world by now—and for which the “wall” is the perfect icon—is that the Neocons - Rapturists- Zionists (NRZ’s) have a mindset of domination, not peaceful co-existenance.
While watching the credits roll at the end of Oliver Stone’s movie, The World Trade Center last week, I was taken in by a feeling of sorrow over the opportunity we had lost in the pursuit of world peace. I remembered the outpouring of worldwide compassion and support for my country ... that I personally refelt as the movie unfolded ... and that we have now pissed away in brutal pursuit--not just of revenge--but of power.
The choice by our Neocon inspired leadership to use this moment in history to pursue world domination rather than world peace says it all.
This is the madness that motivates these folks ... the NRZ’s as I call them.
The question becomes (which should be easily answered by a “Christian” nation): If we don’t act on behalf of peace when we are strong and can do something, when will we?
“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” -Matthew 5:9
Turning to the latest war between Hezbollah and Israel: It’s clear that we (the USA) were egging Israel on as a planning exercise (an experiment?) in reviewing our options vis-a-vis Iran.
Anyone who says Israel won is delusional or lying.
Yet who believes our President is not still on a path to Armageddon in the Middle East?
Forget who is right or who is wrong. When those who actually are the strongest abandon the pursuit of peace, the world is doomed as a safe place for human beings.
I hear the jellyfish are making a comeback.
What should be clear to the world by now—and for which the “wall” is the perfect icon—is that the Neocons - Rapturists- Zionists (NRZ’s) have a mindset of domination, not peaceful co-existenance.
While watching the credits roll at the end of Oliver Stone’s movie, The World Trade Center last week, I was taken in by a feeling of sorrow over the opportunity we had lost in the pursuit of world peace. I remembered the outpouring of worldwide compassion and support for my country ... that I personally refelt as the movie unfolded ... and that we have now pissed away in brutal pursuit--not just of revenge--but of power.
The choice by our Neocon inspired leadership to use this moment in history to pursue world domination rather than world peace says it all.
This is the madness that motivates these folks ... the NRZ’s as I call them.
The question becomes (which should be easily answered by a “Christian” nation): If we don’t act on behalf of peace when we are strong and can do something, when will we?
“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” -Matthew 5:9
Turning to the latest war between Hezbollah and Israel: It’s clear that we (the USA) were egging Israel on as a planning exercise (an experiment?) in reviewing our options vis-a-vis Iran.
Anyone who says Israel won is delusional or lying.
Yet who believes our President is not still on a path to Armageddon in the Middle East?
Forget who is right or who is wrong. When those who actually are the strongest abandon the pursuit of peace, the world is doomed as a safe place for human beings.
I hear the jellyfish are making a comeback.
Monday, August 14, 2006
On the Middle East conflict between Hezbollah and Israel
Some talking points amongst the din and clatter and shouting:
Hezbollah is a engaged in a violent struggle with Israel.
Israel is engaged in a viloent struggle with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has not abided by UN Resolutions.
Israel has not abided by UN Resolutions.
The major issues (as I see them) are:
- The right of Israel to exist (adoption of the Partition Plan by the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947.)
- The right of return (International Law and decreed by UN Resolution 237)
- The withdrawal to th 1967 borders with an end to the state of belligerency (decreed by UN Resolution 242)
- The sharing of Jerusalem (Decreed by UN Resolution 252 and others, such as 476)
- The exchange of prisoners.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_UN_resolutions_concerning_Israel
The nature of the conflict is clearly documented in the UN Resolutions in response to that conflict from the establishment of the State of Israel up until today.
The question is: Will the Arab states agree to stop their belligerency against the State of Israel if Israel agrees to and abides by a specific set of conditions in a two-state (Israel and Palestine) solution?
Amongst other acts, by building the wall and usurping land that would belong to Palestine under Resolution 242, Israel lays down a marker that it is unilaterally setting the conditions of the two-state solution ... and justifying it by pointing to the perpetual belligerency of those aligned against her.
Amongst other acts, by Iran and other Muslim states/groups saying Israel should not exist and or challenging the wall (amongst other issues such as the Sheba Farms land), they challenge Israel and her unilateral solution ... and perpetuate a state of belligerency against Israel.
This has all the earmarks of a tribal pissing contest based on who is the most violent so who must be the most feared.
Unless these issues are resolved peaceably, the conflict will continue ... a conflict Israel may have hoped to win via the transformation of the Middle East by military means a la the Neocon plan to remake Iraq as a western-style democracy ... which, by the way—in case anyone is paying attention—is failing miserably ... and could be why Israel may feel the need to prove that she is tougher than the USA when it comes to things like war.
So now that Israel and her ally (my country, the USA) have stirred up the hornets nest in the Middle East with their ill-conceived ventures (Iraq and Southern Lebanon), Israel wants the international community to bail them out ... when, as history shows, Israel does not have a good track record herself in abiding by the wishes of the international community.
It’s like Israel is pouring fuel on a fire close to a gasoline storage tank and calling up the fire department saying, “You better get over here and stop this fire before the storage tank blows up.” ... “No, we didn’t start it. The neighbors did, but it was so small we knew you wouldn’t come and put it out until it got bigger.”
Well, it ought to be clear to everyone involved that sooner or later this is could go nuclear (the gasoline storage tank blows up) if it is not resolved peaceably. It already is nuclear on our side (Israel and the USA) a la Kipling: “Whatever happens we have got/The Gatling gun and they have not.” [sic].
So why aren’t we (the USA) hard at work trying to resolve this peaceably while we still have the clout to do so? This is where the debacle in Iraq rears its ugly head. The billiant idiots devising the Project for the New American Century actually believed they could transform Iraq and thereby set in motion a transformation of the Middle East.
Now because the results of the Neocons’ blind ignorance and wishful thinking are that the region is tipping into a chaotic state and truly threatening to Israel, the Neocons are saying we have to escalate the conflict lest Israel lose. "Pour more fuel on the fire! Then the fire department will HAVE to respond."
Dah!
This conflict CANNOT be settled militarily.
We have to be more creative than that ... but the Neocons - Rapturists - Zionists (the NRZ’s) are yelling, “Bring it on!”
Is it any wonder that the world worries about us when we elect a president like GW?
In one respect the Armageddonists are right. That battle will cleanse the world ... trouble is, it’s the jellyfish who will have another go at, not the human race.
Hezbollah is a engaged in a violent struggle with Israel.
Israel is engaged in a viloent struggle with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has not abided by UN Resolutions.
Israel has not abided by UN Resolutions.
The major issues (as I see them) are:
- The right of Israel to exist (adoption of the Partition Plan by the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947.)
- The right of return (International Law and decreed by UN Resolution 237)
- The withdrawal to th 1967 borders with an end to the state of belligerency (decreed by UN Resolution 242)
- The sharing of Jerusalem (Decreed by UN Resolution 252 and others, such as 476)
- The exchange of prisoners.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_UN_resolutions_concerning_Israel
The nature of the conflict is clearly documented in the UN Resolutions in response to that conflict from the establishment of the State of Israel up until today.
The question is: Will the Arab states agree to stop their belligerency against the State of Israel if Israel agrees to and abides by a specific set of conditions in a two-state (Israel and Palestine) solution?
Amongst other acts, by building the wall and usurping land that would belong to Palestine under Resolution 242, Israel lays down a marker that it is unilaterally setting the conditions of the two-state solution ... and justifying it by pointing to the perpetual belligerency of those aligned against her.
Amongst other acts, by Iran and other Muslim states/groups saying Israel should not exist and or challenging the wall (amongst other issues such as the Sheba Farms land), they challenge Israel and her unilateral solution ... and perpetuate a state of belligerency against Israel.
This has all the earmarks of a tribal pissing contest based on who is the most violent so who must be the most feared.
Unless these issues are resolved peaceably, the conflict will continue ... a conflict Israel may have hoped to win via the transformation of the Middle East by military means a la the Neocon plan to remake Iraq as a western-style democracy ... which, by the way—in case anyone is paying attention—is failing miserably ... and could be why Israel may feel the need to prove that she is tougher than the USA when it comes to things like war.
So now that Israel and her ally (my country, the USA) have stirred up the hornets nest in the Middle East with their ill-conceived ventures (Iraq and Southern Lebanon), Israel wants the international community to bail them out ... when, as history shows, Israel does not have a good track record herself in abiding by the wishes of the international community.
It’s like Israel is pouring fuel on a fire close to a gasoline storage tank and calling up the fire department saying, “You better get over here and stop this fire before the storage tank blows up.” ... “No, we didn’t start it. The neighbors did, but it was so small we knew you wouldn’t come and put it out until it got bigger.”
Well, it ought to be clear to everyone involved that sooner or later this is could go nuclear (the gasoline storage tank blows up) if it is not resolved peaceably. It already is nuclear on our side (Israel and the USA) a la Kipling: “Whatever happens we have got/The Gatling gun and they have not.” [sic].
So why aren’t we (the USA) hard at work trying to resolve this peaceably while we still have the clout to do so? This is where the debacle in Iraq rears its ugly head. The billiant idiots devising the Project for the New American Century actually believed they could transform Iraq and thereby set in motion a transformation of the Middle East.
Now because the results of the Neocons’ blind ignorance and wishful thinking are that the region is tipping into a chaotic state and truly threatening to Israel, the Neocons are saying we have to escalate the conflict lest Israel lose. "Pour more fuel on the fire! Then the fire department will HAVE to respond."
Dah!
This conflict CANNOT be settled militarily.
We have to be more creative than that ... but the Neocons - Rapturists - Zionists (the NRZ’s) are yelling, “Bring it on!”
Is it any wonder that the world worries about us when we elect a president like GW?
In one respect the Armageddonists are right. That battle will cleanse the world ... trouble is, it’s the jellyfish who will have another go at, not the human race.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
911: The "Do Nothing" Conspiracy ... as a movie
Here's the pitch:
A small group of Neocons (SGN) high up in the Bush Administration learn of an Al Qaeda plot to hijack planes and crash them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the White House.
The SGN'ers recognize this as the perfect event/opportunity avoid a protracted political struggle to implement the Project for the New American Century, and begin to immediately distract attention from the Al Qaeda plot. This is easily done because of turf battles between the State Department, the CIA, the FBI, and the Pentagon.
But they can't simply leave it entirely in the hands of the terrorists ... so they tweak the operation a tad ... like make sure a plane does not reach the White House, limit the number of casualties in the WTC plus assist the the collapse of the buildings, and—because the Pentagon is such a damn hard target to hit correctly (the section recently rebuilt for the task)—send in a airplane as a drone.
But oops, one or more of the SGN'ers realized that he/she/they can make a lot of money by placing put orders on the stock of the companies that will be involved BEFORE 9/11 ...
And oops again, that damn outer wall of the Pentagon doesn't collapse on impact ... so it becomes harder and harder to make believe that a 757 hit it ...
And oops, some kids start putting the pieces of the puzzle together ... in a video no less ...
And oops, the NORAD tapes are released ... and the 911 Commission heads say they were lied to ...
But not to worry ... the public is convinced there was no active conspiracy to plan and execute 911 from the beginning to the end involving the whole Bush Administration ... so everyone breaths a huge sigh of relief and lives happily ever after ... with the riches God showered on them ... but oops they realized they couldn't collect on the put orders, so they just have to benefit from the common good under the guidance of the Invisible Hand.
Whadaya think?
A small group of Neocons (SGN) high up in the Bush Administration learn of an Al Qaeda plot to hijack planes and crash them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the White House.
The SGN'ers recognize this as the perfect event/opportunity avoid a protracted political struggle to implement the Project for the New American Century, and begin to immediately distract attention from the Al Qaeda plot. This is easily done because of turf battles between the State Department, the CIA, the FBI, and the Pentagon.
But they can't simply leave it entirely in the hands of the terrorists ... so they tweak the operation a tad ... like make sure a plane does not reach the White House, limit the number of casualties in the WTC plus assist the the collapse of the buildings, and—because the Pentagon is such a damn hard target to hit correctly (the section recently rebuilt for the task)—send in a airplane as a drone.
But oops, one or more of the SGN'ers realized that he/she/they can make a lot of money by placing put orders on the stock of the companies that will be involved BEFORE 9/11 ...
And oops again, that damn outer wall of the Pentagon doesn't collapse on impact ... so it becomes harder and harder to make believe that a 757 hit it ...
And oops, some kids start putting the pieces of the puzzle together ... in a video no less ...
And oops, the NORAD tapes are released ... and the 911 Commission heads say they were lied to ...
But not to worry ... the public is convinced there was no active conspiracy to plan and execute 911 from the beginning to the end involving the whole Bush Administration ... so everyone breaths a huge sigh of relief and lives happily ever after ... with the riches God showered on them ... but oops they realized they couldn't collect on the put orders, so they just have to benefit from the common good under the guidance of the Invisible Hand.
Whadaya think?
Sunday, August 06, 2006
If we abandon reason and transparency in a democracy, voting doesn’t count
Written as a comment in response to the Ear to Ground coulmn "Press ignores church's role in Bush's policies", August 3 on www.truthdig.com:
Comment #16866 by Hilding Lindquist on 8/05 at 12:16 pm
Re: Comment #16825 by Stephen Smoliar on 8/05 at 7:51 am
In turn regarding: Comment #16617 by Hilding Lindquist on 8/04 at 8:11 am
(See Even the butterfly makes a difference below.)
“I have to take issue with Hilding Lindquist: ‘voting is the packaging that comes with the gift of reasoning between informed participants.’ The best packaging for the ‘reasoning between informed participants’ is CONSENSUS.”
Maybe I wasn’t clear enough—or go far enough in my explanation. You see, “reasoning between informed participants” is the process of forming consensus/agreement. And voting is the means by which we indicate whether or not we have reached consensus/agreement. The last time I was in a consensus building group (fairly recently, I’ve just taken the summer off from my group activities) the larger we were the more we used a show of hands or some other voting mechanism to indciate how close we were to consensus/agreement.
My point was that coming to consensus/agreement (deciding as a group) through informed reasoning by the participants is the substance of democracy (there’s some history here). The mechanism for marking who is in agreement and who is not—voting—is simply that.
However, because we are dealing with millions of diverse people—who probably will never reach a true consensus on any specific agreement—it does not mean we have to abandon informed reasoning between the participants.
There have been a number of studies out that demonstrate that a group of people each one of whom makes an individual decision about something like the jellybeans in a jar will produce an average that is pretty close to the actual number ... even though there are outliers way off the mark.
Central to all this is transparency ... the people have to be able to see the jelly beans in the jar in order to make an informed estimate.
Stephen ends his comment with, “This takes us back to the hypothesis that our problem is not that America is not a population of ‘informed participants’ but that the mass media are doing everything they can to keep them from BEING ‘informed participants!’”
I don’t know of a time when the population of these United States was not being misinformed by yellow journalism, end times evangelism, corporate interests, labor interests, political interests, war machine interests, etc., etc., etc.
The one thing that I know that motivates the “population” of our nation to take action is the loss or the threatened loss of there livelihood ... or some part thereof.
What the Neocon corporationists have accomplished to date, is put us firmly on the path to a major upheaval due to the continuing economic degradation of labor.
Maybe they actually believe they can turn the United States into a banana republic with a huge split between economic classes dividing them into owners (i.e., those who own enough to support themselves and their families) and workers… but the workers have no place to go but into the streets.
(Of course there is always the prospect of another World War to bail ‘em out.)
And I also believe that the primary “creative” dialectic in a capitalist society (which gives it its vibrant strength) is between the interests of asset and knowledge capital on one side pursuing their self-interst (with their own little sub-dialectic contributing to the mix) and the interests of labor on the other side pursuing its self-interest. (Give either side the upper hand, and you got trouble.)
But I digress. What I do believe is that if we abandon reason and transparency in a democracy, voting doesn’t count.
Comment #16866 by Hilding Lindquist on 8/05 at 12:16 pm
Re: Comment #16825 by Stephen Smoliar on 8/05 at 7:51 am
In turn regarding: Comment #16617 by Hilding Lindquist on 8/04 at 8:11 am
(See Even the butterfly makes a difference below.)
“I have to take issue with Hilding Lindquist: ‘voting is the packaging that comes with the gift of reasoning between informed participants.’ The best packaging for the ‘reasoning between informed participants’ is CONSENSUS.”
Maybe I wasn’t clear enough—or go far enough in my explanation. You see, “reasoning between informed participants” is the process of forming consensus/agreement. And voting is the means by which we indicate whether or not we have reached consensus/agreement. The last time I was in a consensus building group (fairly recently, I’ve just taken the summer off from my group activities) the larger we were the more we used a show of hands or some other voting mechanism to indciate how close we were to consensus/agreement.
My point was that coming to consensus/agreement (deciding as a group) through informed reasoning by the participants is the substance of democracy (there’s some history here). The mechanism for marking who is in agreement and who is not—voting—is simply that.
However, because we are dealing with millions of diverse people—who probably will never reach a true consensus on any specific agreement—it does not mean we have to abandon informed reasoning between the participants.
There have been a number of studies out that demonstrate that a group of people each one of whom makes an individual decision about something like the jellybeans in a jar will produce an average that is pretty close to the actual number ... even though there are outliers way off the mark.
Central to all this is transparency ... the people have to be able to see the jelly beans in the jar in order to make an informed estimate.
Stephen ends his comment with, “This takes us back to the hypothesis that our problem is not that America is not a population of ‘informed participants’ but that the mass media are doing everything they can to keep them from BEING ‘informed participants!’”
I don’t know of a time when the population of these United States was not being misinformed by yellow journalism, end times evangelism, corporate interests, labor interests, political interests, war machine interests, etc., etc., etc.
The one thing that I know that motivates the “population” of our nation to take action is the loss or the threatened loss of there livelihood ... or some part thereof.
What the Neocon corporationists have accomplished to date, is put us firmly on the path to a major upheaval due to the continuing economic degradation of labor.
Maybe they actually believe they can turn the United States into a banana republic with a huge split between economic classes dividing them into owners (i.e., those who own enough to support themselves and their families) and workers… but the workers have no place to go but into the streets.
(Of course there is always the prospect of another World War to bail ‘em out.)
And I also believe that the primary “creative” dialectic in a capitalist society (which gives it its vibrant strength) is between the interests of asset and knowledge capital on one side pursuing their self-interst (with their own little sub-dialectic contributing to the mix) and the interests of labor on the other side pursuing its self-interest. (Give either side the upper hand, and you got trouble.)
But I digress. What I do believe is that if we abandon reason and transparency in a democracy, voting doesn’t count.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Blessed are the peacemakers ...
Taken from comments written in response to "The Photos That Damn Hezbollah", in Ear to the Ground,, August 1, on www.truthdig.com:
The seeds of this violence go back millenia ... and it all seems to rest on the concept that my God is stronger than your God ... of people with tribal mindsets, each tribe believing it was chosen by their God. (And strangely in this case, all by the same God.)
As little boys behind the barn we used to call it a pissing contest. What do you call it?
Regarding the playground: You see, the mother realized there might be more to the story (See A playground story) ... the father did what most of us do, assume the fault of the other party. The story is a little bit of a Rorschach test or maybe a gestalt is a better description, because the "isolated in the neighborhood" concept sort of gives a certain outline.
I personally believe that much violence (however started) is in the instance of the specific act of violence, unjustified ... which is not to say that a strenuous defense is unjustified ... but too often it is in the iconic form of the husband who after hitting his wife, says, "She had it coming." or "She made me do it."
As a supposedly Christian nation with the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of our authentic heroes ... for us to be the sole vote on the UN Security Council blocking a call for an immediate ceasefire is morally indefensible ... in my judgement.
Regarding the holocaust: I am sorry that millions of innocent Jewish people lost their lives in the death camps of Germany located in Europe.
As the offspring of Swedish immigrants to the United States, and having learned the history of the Western Hemisphere, I am also sorry that millions of innocent native people lost there lives at the hands of Europeans.
Is their moral equivalence between those two events of genocide? I don't know. I have never examined them with making that determination in mind.
What I do know, is that I respect Ghandi more and more every day. Because he knew ... as I believe ... that tit for tat violence never ends, it ... escalates ... and with nukes already in the Middle East and more on the way ... we have to figure out some way to stop the cycle of violence ... "It stops here!" ... which -- according to what is attributed to a man named Jesus -- is the responsibilty of the strong. "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God."
Who can be stronger here on earth than God's children?
Comment #16496 by ed_tru_lib on 8/03 at 2:55 pm
Ah Hilding-I didn’t say Israel. I said Jews. Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Jacob) predate Saul by more than a millenium. I had to assume you meant bully, since you were obviously comparing the other kid to hezbollah.
We’re in complete agreement though about how they should have learned from the old testament. Being ready AND ABLE to defend themselves just a few years sooner could have prevented the holocaust.
The seeds of this violence go back millenia ... and it all seems to rest on the concept that my God is stronger than your God ... of people with tribal mindsets, each tribe believing it was chosen by their God. (And strangely in this case, all by the same God.)
As little boys behind the barn we used to call it a pissing contest. What do you call it?
Regarding the playground: You see, the mother realized there might be more to the story (See A playground story) ... the father did what most of us do, assume the fault of the other party. The story is a little bit of a Rorschach test or maybe a gestalt is a better description, because the "isolated in the neighborhood" concept sort of gives a certain outline.
I personally believe that much violence (however started) is in the instance of the specific act of violence, unjustified ... which is not to say that a strenuous defense is unjustified ... but too often it is in the iconic form of the husband who after hitting his wife, says, "She had it coming." or "She made me do it."
As a supposedly Christian nation with the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of our authentic heroes ... for us to be the sole vote on the UN Security Council blocking a call for an immediate ceasefire is morally indefensible ... in my judgement.
Regarding the holocaust: I am sorry that millions of innocent Jewish people lost their lives in the death camps of Germany located in Europe.
As the offspring of Swedish immigrants to the United States, and having learned the history of the Western Hemisphere, I am also sorry that millions of innocent native people lost there lives at the hands of Europeans.
Is their moral equivalence between those two events of genocide? I don't know. I have never examined them with making that determination in mind.
What I do know, is that I respect Ghandi more and more every day. Because he knew ... as I believe ... that tit for tat violence never ends, it ... escalates ... and with nukes already in the Middle East and more on the way ... we have to figure out some way to stop the cycle of violence ... "It stops here!" ... which -- according to what is attributed to a man named Jesus -- is the responsibilty of the strong. "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God."
Who can be stronger here on earth than God's children?
Even the butterfly makes a difference ...
Written as a comment in response to the Ear to Ground coulmn "Press ignores church's role in Bush's policies", August 3 on www.truthdig.com:
Maybe the mainstream media is finally wakening up to the insanity of Fundamentalist Christians (FCs) and their obsession with the Rapture aka The Second Coming of Jesus Christ aka The Return of Jesus Christ. I was raised one—an FC ... my mother actually believed her children (like me and my siblings) would witness Christ’s return. FCs believe that they will be raptured BEFORE the seven years tribulation ... so bringing about the Battle of Armageddon and the destruction of the world as we know it, is not a problem for them.
The flip side of GW’s insanity is his concept of democracy. He thinks it’s a contest with ballots instead of bullets. And whatever you do to win the election is OK, as long as you win ... THAT is the American way.
GW has absolutely no comprehension that voting is the packaging that comes with the gift of reasoning between informed participants. If their is no gift, the packaging is not simply worthless, it is a hoax.
A HUGE problem in all this is that all movements have momentum, social movements as well as physical movements ... and the Neocon movement has enough power and wealth wrapped up in it, that altering its course—let alone stoppeing it—take an tremendous amount of time and energy in oppostion.
The tendency in the face of some seemingly overwhelming struggles is for the individual citiizen to become discouraged and ask, “What can I do against such odds?”
The answer comes out of the recent understanding of chaos theory AND the two thousand year old teaching attributed to a man named Jesus: “If we have the faith of a mustard seed we can move (redirect) a mountain (a boulder rolling down a mountain).” That is, if our faith is the basis of our actions.
No one has an excuse to not do whatever he or she can. Choosing to not do anything is a choice.
Even the butterfly makes a difference.
Maybe the mainstream media is finally wakening up to the insanity of Fundamentalist Christians (FCs) and their obsession with the Rapture aka The Second Coming of Jesus Christ aka The Return of Jesus Christ. I was raised one—an FC ... my mother actually believed her children (like me and my siblings) would witness Christ’s return. FCs believe that they will be raptured BEFORE the seven years tribulation ... so bringing about the Battle of Armageddon and the destruction of the world as we know it, is not a problem for them.
The flip side of GW’s insanity is his concept of democracy. He thinks it’s a contest with ballots instead of bullets. And whatever you do to win the election is OK, as long as you win ... THAT is the American way.
GW has absolutely no comprehension that voting is the packaging that comes with the gift of reasoning between informed participants. If their is no gift, the packaging is not simply worthless, it is a hoax.
A HUGE problem in all this is that all movements have momentum, social movements as well as physical movements ... and the Neocon movement has enough power and wealth wrapped up in it, that altering its course—let alone stoppeing it—take an tremendous amount of time and energy in oppostion.
The tendency in the face of some seemingly overwhelming struggles is for the individual citiizen to become discouraged and ask, “What can I do against such odds?”
The answer comes out of the recent understanding of chaos theory AND the two thousand year old teaching attributed to a man named Jesus: “If we have the faith of a mustard seed we can move (redirect) a mountain (a boulder rolling down a mountain).” That is, if our faith is the basis of our actions.
No one has an excuse to not do whatever he or she can. Choosing to not do anything is a choice.
Even the butterfly makes a difference.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
A playground story ...
The little boy, crying, comes up to his father on the side of the playground.
“Daaaaaaaad,” the boy wails.
His father reacts immediately and picks his son up and puts him on his lap. “What happened?” he asks.
“That boy over there.” The boy pauses and points to another boy playing in the middle of the playground. “He hit me.”
‘Well, go hit him back,” the father says, puts his son down and pushes him forward.
The wife and mother having overheard the exchange comes rushing forward, sweeps up their son and looks back at her husband. “Are your crazy? Do you want to start a riot in this neighborhood?”
“But our son can whip that kid’s butt.”
“And his big brother’s, and his friends? It’s just us and our son here.”
“But we’re stronger then they are.”
“For now, here, at this time and place." She paused and then said, "Let’s hope we’re smarter, too.”
“Daaaaaaaad,” the boy wails.
His father reacts immediately and picks his son up and puts him on his lap. “What happened?” he asks.
“That boy over there.” The boy pauses and points to another boy playing in the middle of the playground. “He hit me.”
‘Well, go hit him back,” the father says, puts his son down and pushes him forward.
The wife and mother having overheard the exchange comes rushing forward, sweeps up their son and looks back at her husband. “Are your crazy? Do you want to start a riot in this neighborhood?”
“But our son can whip that kid’s butt.”
“And his big brother’s, and his friends? It’s just us and our son here.”
“But we’re stronger then they are.”
“For now, here, at this time and place." She paused and then said, "Let’s hope we’re smarter, too.”
Addendum: There’s a book out titled, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum. How can I get a copy to the Israeli Security Cabinet? I think they are still replaying Joshua at Jericho ... which is soooooo OLD Testament. Israel is stuck in its tribal past.
Israel and the Neocons are willing to use nuclear weapons in pursuit of their goals
Written in response to a comment posted by "Nathaniel Turner" in comments to Robert Scheer's report, "Israel’s Dependency on the Drug of Militarism" on www.truthdig.com:
Comment #16362 by Hilding Lindquist on 8/02 at 8:18 pm
Re: Comment #16230 by Nathaniel Turner on 8/02 at 8:40 am
“Unfortunately, the insanity that clearly grips Israel means they will likely resort to attacks on Damascus and Tehran and then to use of their nuclear arsenal when all else fails.”
The sooner we all realize this is what we are faced with, the sooner we can get on with the business of restoring sanity to our world: Israel and the Neocons are willing to use nuclear weapons in pursuit of their goals.
Each of us has the potential to be the pebble that redirects the boulder rumbling down the mountain. None of us can hide behind the disclaimer, “What can I do?”
The message of Jesus (attributed to a man named Jesus) conforms to our new knowledge of chaos theory. If we have faith of mustard seed, we can move (redirect) the mountain.
I keep telling everyone, Israel’s replay of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho in the name of Jehovah is so DAMN Old Testament. Israel is stuck in its tribal past.
Monday, July 31, 2006
We can only hope that somehow, someway ... someday
There is more to democracy than voting.
There was an OpEd column in the NY Times, July 29, regarding the ideas Baruch Spinoza introduced in the 17th Century:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/29/opinion/29goldstein.html
We—I mean, us ... the good old vaunted USA—have abandoned reason in our pursuit of what we ought to be, and with it our posture of a rational broker of the world’s future. We can only hope that somehow, someway ... someday we will escape from under the grinding power of the concentrated wealth now imprisoning us.
Note: First written as Comment #15867 by Hilding Lindquist on 7/30 at 5:20 pm in response to www.truthdig.com Ear to the Ground article,
"Welcome to the New Middle East Paradigm"
Sunday, July 30, 2006
My god, my god, why have we forsaken thee?
I take a summer break ... and all hell breaks out!
When are we going to learn that it is up to the strong to end the cycle of violence!
Are we not a Christian nation? Didn't Jesus teach, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God"?
What is happening between Israel and Hezbollah is total insanity on Israel's part. Of course Hezbollah started it IN THIS INSTANCE by capturing the Israeli soldiers ... but, my god, Israel then decided to make heroes of Hezbollah through collective retribution toward the civilian population of Lebanon?
And now after making a complete mess of everything, Israel wants the UN to come in and bail them out with a peacekeepng force?
Sure thing, stir up the hornets nest and then run for cover.
Any metaphor quickly loses relevance in this situation.
Let's be clear. Hezbollah IN THIS INSTANCE stung the Israelis first. Dah! Let's not even ask why, let's just stipulate first causes. How does that justify collective retribution against the civilian population ... something Israel is saying is justified because the they claim the civilians are hiding the Hezbollah soldiers?
As Bob Herbert writes in today's NY Times OpEd Section, "Yes, Virginia, the world is going mad."
He's writing regarding the spread of nuclear weapons capacity/capability ... it's all about escalating the tolerance for violence.
On the other hand, maybe we're simply reverting to Jehovah as God ... forsaking our the enlightenment taught by Jesus, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God."
King James Version, Old Testament, Joshua 6:17-21:
One of the valuable lessons we learn from the New Testament is that the strong must break the cycle of violence ... if it ever is to be broken. If we allow the bullies to have their way, we subscribe to fear and the jungle rather than hope and civilization.
It isn't just the lessons of their prior occupation and the ten years earlier bombing of same village with the same outcome that Israel has failed to learn, it is the lessons of their own ancient history.
Violence ALWAYS sets in motion payback, until someone is willing to step forward and say, "It stops here."
How many times do we have to crucify the Christ in us before we learn the lesson?
When are we going to learn that it is up to the strong to end the cycle of violence!
Are we not a Christian nation? Didn't Jesus teach, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God"?
What is happening between Israel and Hezbollah is total insanity on Israel's part. Of course Hezbollah started it IN THIS INSTANCE by capturing the Israeli soldiers ... but, my god, Israel then decided to make heroes of Hezbollah through collective retribution toward the civilian population of Lebanon?
And now after making a complete mess of everything, Israel wants the UN to come in and bail them out with a peacekeepng force?
Sure thing, stir up the hornets nest and then run for cover.
Any metaphor quickly loses relevance in this situation.
Let's be clear. Hezbollah IN THIS INSTANCE stung the Israelis first. Dah! Let's not even ask why, let's just stipulate first causes. How does that justify collective retribution against the civilian population ... something Israel is saying is justified because the they claim the civilians are hiding the Hezbollah soldiers?
Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions collective punishments are a war crime. Article 33 states: "No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed," and "collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."
By collective punishment, the drafters of the Geneva Conventions had in mind the reprisal killings of World Wars I and II. In the First World War, Germans executed Belgian villagers in mass retribution for resistance activity. In World War II, Nazis carried out a form of collective punishment to suppress resistance. Entire villages or towns or districts were held responsible for any resistance activity that took place there. The conventions, to counter this, reiterated the principle of individual responsibility. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Commentary to the conventions states that parties to a conflict often would resort to "intimidatory measures to terrorize the population" in hopes of preventing hostile acts, but such practices "strike at guilty and innocent alike. They are opposed to all principles based on humanity and justice."
Addendum added July 31, 2006 at 11:25 AM
As Bob Herbert writes in today's NY Times OpEd Section, "Yes, Virginia, the world is going mad."
He's writing regarding the spread of nuclear weapons capacity/capability ... it's all about escalating the tolerance for violence.
On the other hand, maybe we're simply reverting to Jehovah as God ... forsaking our the enlightenment taught by Jesus, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God."
King James Version, Old Testament, Joshua 6:17-21:
"And the city shall be accursed, [even] it, and all that [are] therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that [are] with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.Which version of God do we follow? Which do we forsake?
"And ye, in any wise keep [yourselves] from the accursed thing, lest ye make [yourselves] accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.
"But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, [are] consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.
"So the people shouted when [the priests] blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
"And they utterly destroyed all that [was] in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword."
One of the valuable lessons we learn from the New Testament is that the strong must break the cycle of violence ... if it ever is to be broken. If we allow the bullies to have their way, we subscribe to fear and the jungle rather than hope and civilization.
It isn't just the lessons of their prior occupation and the ten years earlier bombing of same village with the same outcome that Israel has failed to learn, it is the lessons of their own ancient history.
Violence ALWAYS sets in motion payback, until someone is willing to step forward and say, "It stops here."
How many times do we have to crucify the Christ in us before we learn the lesson?
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Now that the Supreme Court has spoken ...
Congress will have to weigh in on what Bush and Company—led by the MBA President—have been doing in George's name.
They've been avoiding it, spending their time on spending our money to ensure their re-election with tactically (strategically?) placed earmarks. Somehow the Neocon Republicans thought "core values" meant public-purse projects in the home district. (Of course there's nothing new in that! They are—above all else—politicians.)
So now the Neocon Republicans are going to actually have to vote on their interpretation of the meaning our REAL core values, CLEARLY stated in our Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights ... and, oh yes, since so many of them keep calling us a CHRISTian nation, maybe the will get around to reflecting on the Christ's Sermon on the Mount ... Jesus's CLEAR statement of HIS core values.
There is so much divine right of kings (George as God's Chosen leader with unimpeded executive authority) and OLD Testament (Jehovah smiting the heathen, Joshusa killing every living thing in Jericho) rhetoric spewing out of these Neocons that it is hard to believe that they are either American or Christian.
Could it be that they are wolves wearing lambskin? (Good Christians will REALLY appreciate that metaphor.)
They've been avoiding it, spending their time on spending our money to ensure their re-election with tactically (strategically?) placed earmarks. Somehow the Neocon Republicans thought "core values" meant public-purse projects in the home district. (Of course there's nothing new in that! They are—above all else—politicians.)
So now the Neocon Republicans are going to actually have to vote on their interpretation of the meaning our REAL core values, CLEARLY stated in our Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights ... and, oh yes, since so many of them keep calling us a CHRISTian nation, maybe the will get around to reflecting on the Christ's Sermon on the Mount ... Jesus's CLEAR statement of HIS core values.
There is so much divine right of kings (George as God's Chosen leader with unimpeded executive authority) and OLD Testament (Jehovah smiting the heathen, Joshusa killing every living thing in Jericho) rhetoric spewing out of these Neocons that it is hard to believe that they are either American or Christian.
Could it be that they are wolves wearing lambskin? (Good Christians will REALLY appreciate that metaphor.)
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Dr Yoo, I assume ...
Thoughts on the day after tomorrow, July 4, 2006:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo
Dr. John Yoo, I assume you are a brilliant idiot.
It appears that you have dedicated your genius to the pursuit of power as the ultimate arbiter of human destiny. This is in keeping with the Old Testament god, Jehovah, illustrated by Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. (Note: More about this later.)
You see, John, Jesus introduced a transcending ideal, the seed of a new paradise to emerge after him. It is ideal that the Creator's strength rests in the strong nuturing the weak ... the father, the baby; the big brother, the little sister; the healthy, the sick;, welcoming the stranger; offering peace to one's enemy ... that it is up to the strong to nuture the diversity of the bioshphere.
This transcending ideal of nuturing, this "holy spirit", transforms us.
We have other transcending ideals to guide us while rejecting violence as a solution ... violence may be a defense, but it is never a solution or a tool for seeking one.
Our transcending ideals are clearly stated in our Declaration of Independence:
And in our Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to our Constitution:
Article I Section 1 of our Constitution reads:
And John, from your resumé I also assume that you have lived your adult life within the legal bureacratic systems of our nation. It has been my experience that individuals who succeed in that environment are too often those who suck up to the "powerful who reward those who suck up to them". It is a fairly standard outcome of the classroom environment where those who do best are typically those who learn what the professor/teacher wants and then provide that for the professor/teacher. On the surface this seems to be a reasonable arrangement, but when it is used to maximize power and stiffle original thought or creativity that threatens the power base, then it becomes the arthritis of aging cultures.
Gonzales, Libby, Rove, Yoo ... a set of brilliant ass-kissers. No wonder our nation has wandered so far from the transcending ideals of our founders ... ideals that should re-invigorate us in each new generation with new ideas based on original thought and creativity. Instead we are becoming brittle with the attempt to hang on to old ways (the absurdity of God as "The Invisible Hand"), old wealth (oil), and old power (a military strategy based on "we have nukes").
While Joshua won the Battle of Jericho, the victory foreshadowed the future for the Israelites at the hands of their enemies. What we now know in all human relationships from families to nations, breaking the cycle of violence is the real sign of strength. Jesus was right. Sorry, Dr. Yoo. Reality dictates awarding you a failing grade on your life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo
Dr. John Yoo, I assume you are a brilliant idiot.
It appears that you have dedicated your genius to the pursuit of power as the ultimate arbiter of human destiny. This is in keeping with the Old Testament god, Jehovah, illustrated by Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. (Note: More about this later.)
You see, John, Jesus introduced a transcending ideal, the seed of a new paradise to emerge after him. It is ideal that the Creator's strength rests in the strong nuturing the weak ... the father, the baby; the big brother, the little sister; the healthy, the sick;, welcoming the stranger; offering peace to one's enemy ... that it is up to the strong to nuture the diversity of the bioshphere.
This transcending ideal of nuturing, this "holy spirit", transforms us.
We have other transcending ideals to guide us while rejecting violence as a solution ... violence may be a defense, but it is never a solution or a tool for seeking one.
Our transcending ideals are clearly stated in our Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
And in our Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to our Constitution:
Original Ten Amendments: The Bill of RightsPassed by Congress September 25, 1789.
Ratified December 15, 1791.Amendment ICongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Freedoms, Petitions, AssemblyAmendment IIA well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Right to bear armsAmendment IIINo Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Quartering of soldiersAmendment IVThe right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Search and arrestAmendment VNo person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Rights in criminal casesAmendment VIIn all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed; which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.
Right to a fair trialAmendment VIIIn Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Rights in civil casesAmendment VIIIExcessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
bail, fines, punishmentAmendment IXThe enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Rights retained by the PeopleAmendment XThe powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
States' rights
Article I Section 1 of our Constitution reads:
Article. I.
Section. 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
And John, from your resumé I also assume that you have lived your adult life within the legal bureacratic systems of our nation. It has been my experience that individuals who succeed in that environment are too often those who suck up to the "powerful who reward those who suck up to them". It is a fairly standard outcome of the classroom environment where those who do best are typically those who learn what the professor/teacher wants and then provide that for the professor/teacher. On the surface this seems to be a reasonable arrangement, but when it is used to maximize power and stiffle original thought or creativity that threatens the power base, then it becomes the arthritis of aging cultures.
Gonzales, Libby, Rove, Yoo ... a set of brilliant ass-kissers. No wonder our nation has wandered so far from the transcending ideals of our founders ... ideals that should re-invigorate us in each new generation with new ideas based on original thought and creativity. Instead we are becoming brittle with the attempt to hang on to old ways (the absurdity of God as "The Invisible Hand"), old wealth (oil), and old power (a military strategy based on "we have nukes").
While Joshua won the Battle of Jericho, the victory foreshadowed the future for the Israelites at the hands of their enemies. What we now know in all human relationships from families to nations, breaking the cycle of violence is the real sign of strength. Jesus was right. Sorry, Dr. Yoo. Reality dictates awarding you a failing grade on your life.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
On the meaning of being a conservative
Ooh boy! Seems like we need a little lesson in the meaning of being a conservative ... don’t you think? Not naming any names, or nothing.
“To a conservative, the goal of change is less important than the insistence that change be effected with a respect for the rule of law and traditions of society.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative
Now, as my favorite Conservative (with a Capital C) Columnist (’nother Capital C), Paul Mulshine of the New Jersey Star Ledger, likes to point out, Bush and Company are NOT Conservatives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mulshine
I could spend a lot of time listing all the ways the “Gang Who Can’t Shoot Straight” aren’t Conservative, but let me list two biggies: Conservatives do NOT believe in nation building and Conservatives do NOT believe in passing on current costs to future generations.
Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass” could help us form a parallax/gestalt of the Neocons.
Simply taking some time and exploring the heritage of these so-called “brilliant” theoreticians would smoke ‘em out for the radical bunch of neo-fascists (mirroring fascism) that they are.
Briefly, the Neocons are entwined in their machinations with monopolists cloaking themselves in free market capitalism AND religion a la God as “The Invisible Hand” to avoid having to pay the cost of the damage (the externalities) of their “legal” economic system in acquiring wealth and power. (Note: Any “brilliant” economist who talks about the current economic system as “the free market” who does not also simultaneously discuss wringing externalities out of that so-called “free market” is blowing smoke--like in the second-hand smoke of the cigarette business or exhaust emissions of burning fossil fuels--up our backsides.)
The first requirement of a democratic people is that their leaders tell them the truth. In the ebb and flow of human existence there are times to be conservative, there are times to be progressive, there are times to be liberal. It is our ability to adapt to the needs of the particular epoch in which we find ourselves that allows us to continue to survive and grow while remaining a free people through abiding by such transcending ideals as laid out by our founders in our Declaration of Independence. And as the Good Book teaches in John 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” http://www.blueletterbible.org
“To a conservative, the goal of change is less important than the insistence that change be effected with a respect for the rule of law and traditions of society.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative
Now, as my favorite Conservative (with a Capital C) Columnist (’nother Capital C), Paul Mulshine of the New Jersey Star Ledger, likes to point out, Bush and Company are NOT Conservatives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mulshine
I could spend a lot of time listing all the ways the “Gang Who Can’t Shoot Straight” aren’t Conservative, but let me list two biggies: Conservatives do NOT believe in nation building and Conservatives do NOT believe in passing on current costs to future generations.
Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass” could help us form a parallax/gestalt of the Neocons.
Simply taking some time and exploring the heritage of these so-called “brilliant” theoreticians would smoke ‘em out for the radical bunch of neo-fascists (mirroring fascism) that they are.
Briefly, the Neocons are entwined in their machinations with monopolists cloaking themselves in free market capitalism AND religion a la God as “The Invisible Hand” to avoid having to pay the cost of the damage (the externalities) of their “legal” economic system in acquiring wealth and power. (Note: Any “brilliant” economist who talks about the current economic system as “the free market” who does not also simultaneously discuss wringing externalities out of that so-called “free market” is blowing smoke--like in the second-hand smoke of the cigarette business or exhaust emissions of burning fossil fuels--up our backsides.)
The first requirement of a democratic people is that their leaders tell them the truth. In the ebb and flow of human existence there are times to be conservative, there are times to be progressive, there are times to be liberal. It is our ability to adapt to the needs of the particular epoch in which we find ourselves that allows us to continue to survive and grow while remaining a free people through abiding by such transcending ideals as laid out by our founders in our Declaration of Independence. And as the Good Book teaches in John 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” http://www.blueletterbible.org
Friday, June 30, 2006
We SHALL overcome!
Our Declaration of Independence has been, still is, and will be more than a good theory. It clearly declares a set of transcending ideals that guide us in our tumultuous struggle to become what we ought to be in the face of our “isness”.
There is no perfect state of being for humanity, because our evolution is like the expansion of a balloon’s surface, the more we experience, the more we know, and the more we know, the more we experience because out of our knowledge (our “awareness") we create new ways to experience.
Who and what we are as Americans can be demonstrated in the interactions of a set of contemporary Americans at different times in our history ... for me a good example is the period of Eisenhower (as Supreme Commander under FDR) - Truman - McCarthy - Eisenhower - Kennedy - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ... a turbulent period in our path forward--ever forward through twists and turns of buffetting opposing forces--guided by our ideals set forward so clearly by individuals at the dawn of our great nation who declared “for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
Our heritage contains no greater words than these:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Bushco is a boil on our backside to be lanced and healed ... an ugly sore to be sure, painful and threatening ... but we have overcome horrible things done in our name before at great cost and suffering to ourselves and--sadly--to others ... but that is exactly the point ... we press on to what we ought to be, clearly stated at our beginning.
It is an honor to have been born and lived my whole life in a nation that once allowed slavery and where the strongest example of our ideals during my lifetime was provided by a black man, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, teaching us the power of peace and nonviolence.
We SHALL overcome. That is the enduring value of the transcending ideals of our Declaration of Independence.
There is no perfect state of being for humanity, because our evolution is like the expansion of a balloon’s surface, the more we experience, the more we know, and the more we know, the more we experience because out of our knowledge (our “awareness") we create new ways to experience.
Who and what we are as Americans can be demonstrated in the interactions of a set of contemporary Americans at different times in our history ... for me a good example is the period of Eisenhower (as Supreme Commander under FDR) - Truman - McCarthy - Eisenhower - Kennedy - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ... a turbulent period in our path forward--ever forward through twists and turns of buffetting opposing forces--guided by our ideals set forward so clearly by individuals at the dawn of our great nation who declared “for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
Our heritage contains no greater words than these:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Bushco is a boil on our backside to be lanced and healed ... an ugly sore to be sure, painful and threatening ... but we have overcome horrible things done in our name before at great cost and suffering to ourselves and--sadly--to others ... but that is exactly the point ... we press on to what we ought to be, clearly stated at our beginning.
It is an honor to have been born and lived my whole life in a nation that once allowed slavery and where the strongest example of our ideals during my lifetime was provided by a black man, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, teaching us the power of peace and nonviolence.
We SHALL overcome. That is the enduring value of the transcending ideals of our Declaration of Independence.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
"Let Facts be submitted to a candid world"
"Specifically, today’s Supreme Court ruling held that the president overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees."http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20060629_supreme_court_tribunals/
Or am I missing something here?
Our Declaration of Independence clearly states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
I mean, how basic can you get?
The Declaration also reads: “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
“He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.”
Sound familiar? And what was that English king’s name?
Ah yes, George, wasn’t it?
Is that ironic ... or absurd?
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
The NY Times and freedom of the press ...
Liberty is an ideal that transcends our “here and now” existence while enriching us here and now. Freedom of the press along with freedom of speech are protected in the FIRST Amendment of our Constitution, and are cornerstones of our liberty.
Quoting wikipedia.org: “The First Amendment only explicitly disallows any of the rights from being abridged by laws made by Congress, but as the first sentence in the body of the Constitition reserves all law-making ("legislative") authority to Congress, the courts have held that this extends to the executive and judicial branches.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_amendment
In other words, the executive branch of government SHALL not (is FORBIDDEN to) infringe upon freedom of the press.
Have we the people become such wimps that we let these clowns “rule” us?
And conservatives put up with the likes of these Neocons?
Note: Written as a comment in repsonse to the report, "Robert Scheer: A Disgraceful Attack on the New York Times" on truthdig.com.
Quoting wikipedia.org: “The First Amendment only explicitly disallows any of the rights from being abridged by laws made by Congress, but as the first sentence in the body of the Constitition reserves all law-making ("legislative") authority to Congress, the courts have held that this extends to the executive and judicial branches.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_amendment
In other words, the executive branch of government SHALL not (is FORBIDDEN to) infringe upon freedom of the press.
Have we the people become such wimps that we let these clowns “rule” us?
And conservatives put up with the likes of these Neocons?
Note: Written as a comment in repsonse to the report, "Robert Scheer: A Disgraceful Attack on the New York Times" on truthdig.com.
Lest we be cursed forever.
Haditha, Falluja, Abu Gharib are only some of the most obvious horror stories of our war in Iraq. And to our eternal shame we go about our lives as if nothing is happening ... those of us who are not directly involved ...
Is there a greater sin for a people?: To not care about what is being done in our name to innocent men, women, and children through no fault of their own, only that someone acting on our behalf has labeled them our enemy?
And we are not caring with our eyes wide open to the suffering. There is no way we can say at some future time, "We didn't know."
My god, where are the prophets to call us to repentance? To decipher the handwriting on the wall? We have become the Ghengis Khan of our age.
We are NOT a Christian nation in the meaning of Jesus as the Christ, the Prince of Peace. What we are is a "Joshua fought the Battle of Jericho" nation, slaughtering the men, women, and children along with the animals ... every living thing in the name of Jehovah.
God save us from ourselves! Lest we be cursed forever.
Please read:
Is there a greater sin for a people?: To not care about what is being done in our name to innocent men, women, and children through no fault of their own, only that someone acting on our behalf has labeled them our enemy?
And we are not caring with our eyes wide open to the suffering. There is no way we can say at some future time, "We didn't know."
My god, where are the prophets to call us to repentance? To decipher the handwriting on the wall? We have become the Ghengis Khan of our age.
We are NOT a Christian nation in the meaning of Jesus as the Christ, the Prince of Peace. What we are is a "Joshua fought the Battle of Jericho" nation, slaughtering the men, women, and children along with the animals ... every living thing in the name of Jehovah.
God save us from ourselves! Lest we be cursed forever.
Please read:
The Occupation of Iraqi Hearts and Minds
&
Ugly Americans in Iraq
Go get 'em, burghman!
Neoconservatism is Straussian fascism, an intellectual mirror image of the Nazis developed by Leo Strauss in response to his sense of horror regarding Nazi Germany.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss
From my point of view, I agree with Kevin Phillips in AMERICAN THEOCRACY, in that we have already passed the tipping point in this country. Corporations have achieved an imbalance of power over "we the people" out of their ownership of the wealth that "we the people" created for them. The myopic self-interest of these organizations in pursuing their own benefit without regard to the effect on the community/the world will bring this all crashing down on all of our heads.
There are many reasons why the current economic system will fail, but the most important one--from my point of view--is that under the current legal structure of corporationism (which is a monopolistic form of capitalism), corporations do not have to pay all the costs of bringing their goods and services to market. These unpaid costs are called externalities and can in some instances--such as strip mining for coal in West Virginia--exceed all other costs involved in production ... and are never paid for out of the price of the product by the corporations that do the damage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality
Because of externalities there is no such thing as a free market in today's global economic system. And as soon as you hear one of these so-called economic geniuses start talking about "the free market" WITHOUT mentioning how to wring externalities out of the system, you know they are blowing smoke up your backside. (In point of fact, second hand smoke is STILL an externality of the cigarette business.)
I believe in capitalism and a market where financial capital, knowledge capital, labor AND consumers can contend with each other on an even playing field for the goods, services, AND profits of the system. That is the underlying dynamic system that has produced the concept and reality of growing wealth that we have had up until today in a crude fashion ... that the coprorationists in bed with the Neocons now seek to manipulate and control through monopolistic practices for their own greedy purposes. There is nothing "free market capitalism" about these people at all ... except their use of the label to bamboozle the rest of us.
So there ... go get 'em, burghman!
Note: Originally posted as a comment in the thread, "DOJ Coming After The Fourth Estate?", on the Vanity Fair forum, V.F. Dish at:
http://boards.vanityfair.com/thread.jspa?messageID=17814#17814
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Give 'em Hell, Molly!
Note: Originally written and posted in response to Molly Ivins' column, "Bush's Hawaiian Education" on truthdig.com in which she wrote:
You know if what is going on now doesn't make "we the people" angry enough to take our country back from the self-serving myopic elitist oligarchy (the Oil Neocons) now running things ... then we the people don't deserve to be in charge around here.
What these Oil Neocons don't seem to understand while preaching free markets is that having a closed clique in power (oligarchy, dictatorship, divine right of kings/queens, etc.) is conversely proportional to a creative, vibrant society ... if their power goes up, the society goes done. In simple language, for all their vaunted brilliance, they're idiots! Actually, they are plain old garden-variety greedy bastards.
You know, a person might even acquiesce for awhile --like under the rule of a benevolent king--if the Neocons weren't so damn incompetent. They've taken a darn good country--one of the best (if not THE best) ever--and run it into the ground.
And then they try to tell we the people that we shouldn't be upset?! Are they kidding us?
Give 'em Hell, Molly! The Good Book promises that the Truth will make us free.Election?
Election? Shouldn't there be a modifier in front of that like in "rigged election"?"In case you haven’t been following this, the Superfund is broke and has been largely inactive for four years. The fund was allowed to run dry when Congress failed to renew the tax on polluters. You may not believe this, but the oil and chemical companies complained mightily about being asked to pay for the cleanup of messes they had created. What a concept.
"Other environmental controversies continue to simmer all the time—out of sight, out of mind. Just one more regulation chopped here, just one more law changed there, just a little information hidden.
"But do be sure to give Bush credit for declaring the already protected Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument. That’s a good thing. Is there an election any time soon?"
You know if what is going on now doesn't make "we the people" angry enough to take our country back from the self-serving myopic elitist oligarchy (the Oil Neocons) now running things ... then we the people don't deserve to be in charge around here.
What these Oil Neocons don't seem to understand while preaching free markets is that having a closed clique in power (oligarchy, dictatorship, divine right of kings/queens, etc.) is conversely proportional to a creative, vibrant society ... if their power goes up, the society goes done. In simple language, for all their vaunted brilliance, they're idiots! Actually, they are plain old garden-variety greedy bastards.
You know, a person might even acquiesce for awhile --like under the rule of a benevolent king--if the Neocons weren't so damn incompetent. They've taken a darn good country--one of the best (if not THE best) ever--and run it into the ground.
And then they try to tell we the people that we shouldn't be upset?! Are they kidding us?
Give 'em Hell, Molly! The Good Book promises that the Truth will make us free.Election?
"During a speech by Truman attacking the Republicans during the 1948 Presidential election campaign a supporter yelled out, 'Give 'em Hell, Harry!'. Truman replied, 'I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they think it's Hell.' " -wikipedia
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Comments on PBS Frontline's "The Dark Side" about Dick Cheney
Well, it`s clear that the quagmire in Iraq belongs unequivically to the Bush-Cheney-Rice-Rumsfeld gang. I think Frontline did a pretty good job of credibly documenting who is responsible for getting us here and how they went about it.
What was Cheney thinking? That`s not too difficult to figure out. He and Rumsfeld believe in the effectiveness of military power to achieve strategic goals when the President has unimpeded executive authority.
And they had a goal: to protect our nation`s access to oil, the energy we need for continued world domination without resorting to nuking the opposition … which would have really, REALLY bad consequences.
Too bad they screwed it up.
Wow, did they ever screw it up! Iraq didn`t have WMD (weapons of mass destruction) ... nor were we welcomed with strewn flowers at our soldiers feet … and now Iran is allying itself with a government of Iraq that we USHERED in while Iran thumbs its nose at us on nuclear technology … and North Korea stockpiles nukes as it prepares to launch a longer range missle … and Russia and China increase their influence vis-à-vis our global interests.
And the Bush-Cheney-Rice-Rumsfeld solution? “Stay the course!” And they say it with a straight face.
What’s the definition of insanity? When we keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
Note: Originally written (slightly edited here) as a comment (Hilding Lindquist | 6/20/2006, 11:18 pm EST) in response to the "Open Thread: Watching Dick Cheney" thread in the National Affairs section of RollingStone.com.
OK ... my conservative views.
I don’t believe in running a deficit to pay for a war or earmarks for congressional districts.
I don’t believe in nation-building in other nations that have not attacked us or were no real threat to us.
I believe in a republic with separation of powers between the branches of government, each branch working to uphold, preserve, and protect our Constitution allowing us to be governed by law.
I believe that leaders should not ask of others what they have not been willing to do themselves.
Regarding torture, let me quote wikipedia on conseravtism: “To a conservative, the goal of change is less important than the insistence that change be effected with a respect for the rule of law and traditions of society.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C onservative
To me, torture is a radical departure from the law and traditions of our nation and civilization itself.
I voted for Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy. I admire FDR–who led us during our victory over the real Axis powers, Harry Truman–who drew the original line in the sand on international communism, and Ike–who while governing well, warned us in the end about the very military-industrial complex that now threatens our future. I have never voted for a Clinton and I never will (most likely outcome regarding the future).
And I firmly believe that Bush is so far out of his depth that it defies belief. How anyone who actually knew the man could have let him become President of these United States is a question the current Republican Party will have to answer sooner or later.
Most Americans are far more complex creatures than the Liberals or Conservatives that the Neocons would like to paint us as … dividing us by fear of each other while they (the Neocons) subvert our democratic republic to rule by THEIR elite oligarchy (a path clearly spelled out in Neocon papers outlining their startegy).
Note: Written as a comment (Hilding Lindquist | 6/20/2006, 4:10 pm EST) in response to the "Gitmo and the American Soul" thread in the National Affairs section of RollingStone.com.Monday, June 19, 2006
"Stay the course!" ... the new iconic phrase for failed governance
I do believe G.W.'s "Stay the course!" will go down in history as the new iconic phrase for failed governance. Like when things are really getting screwed up, someone will ask, "What do we do now?" And someone else with a good supply of sarcastic wit will reply, "Stay the course!"
Maybe someone will even come up with a little jingle:
It brings to mind another phrase in the opposite vein:
"During a speech by Truman attacking the Republicans during the 1948 Presidential election campaign a supporter yelled out, 'Give 'em Hell, Harry!'. Truman replied, 'I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they think it's Hell.' " -wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_'em_Hell%2C_Harry%21
Maybe someone will even come up with a little jingle:
If what you`re doing causes grief,
Stay the course!
If you`re headed toward the reef,
Stay the course!
Just be loyal through and through,
Do what Bushie tells you to,
And forget the warning brief,
Stay the course!
It brings to mind another phrase in the opposite vein:
"During a speech by Truman attacking the Republicans during the 1948 Presidential election campaign a supporter yelled out, 'Give 'em Hell, Harry!'. Truman replied, 'I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they think it's Hell.' " -wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_'em_Hell%2C_Harry%21
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)