In Union, There Is Strength

I don't think I have to tell you where I stand on the issues unraveling in Wisconsin.

 

I am a union man. My father was union, blue-collar, working class. I'm union, in fact, three unions. "You don't get me, I'm part of the union," as the song goes.

 

There's a logic here that goes beyond greed (I'll get back to that in a minute). In early American history, companies were small. Certainly, none were of the size of the conglomeratic multinational corporations that control this nation today.

 

In early American history, it was likely that a line worker in a factory knew his boss. He may even have socialized with him on occasion, in church or some community function. Owners were in touch with their workers. They saw first hand the abject poverty many of them lived in. Many, if not most, acted appropriately.

 

Some did not, of cours, else how would Dickens have made a career, British or not?

 

As corporations agglomerated and grew disproportionately to their communities, there really was nothing to stand in their way. The "company store" of song was very real: a corporation would hire entire towns, situate them in the company's thralls, pay them next to nothing, provide next to zero benefits, and then overcharge them for buying food.

 

Enter unions. As unions gathered strength in numbers, they were able to force companies to deal with the plight of their workers. In union, in unity, came strength. If the union advised its members to strike, they did. Usually, they'd win concessions that genuinely improved the lot, not just of their members, but of workers across the land.

 

You see, when you're the 800 lb gorilla in the room, people notice what you're up to. And when the 800 lb gorilla has to share more bananas to the troops of chimps who gather those bananas, other smaller gorillas realize they'll have to pony up or lose workers and therefore efficiencies and revenues.

 

Even if those gorillas aren't unionized.

 

A curious event happened in the 1980s, one that was a long time coming, but still surprising.

 

PATCO, the air traffic controllers union, went out on strike.

 

They struck the single biggest silverback in the world: the US government. Of course, they broke a law doing it (most unions give up the right to strike with regards to public service employees.)

 

Ironically, they did this because they felt they would have the support of the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan a) whom they endorsed and b) who was himself a former union president (the Screen Actors Guild).

 

Not so lucky: he promptly decertified them, effectively disbanding the union and firing the strikers.

 

That was the deathknell for unions in America. Nevermind that our manufacturing base had been eroding steadily if slowly (and was about to accelerate rapidly ni the wake of the mergers and acquisition bubble of the 80s). Nevermind that unions themselves had become pockets of corruption in many cases, greedy criminals running them, like Jimmy Hoffa.

 

The ill-advised PATCO strike probably was the single body blow that brought unions to their knees. If the government could fire them, then anyone would give it a try. And they did. And they succeeded, if only by filing bankruptcy (which is where the merger craze comes in) and dissolving the collective bargaining agreements as contracts null and void in the bankruptcy. Workers became mere creditors of the company, in effect.

 

But today, this week, this month, this year, we're starting to see the backlash of unions and union-minded people. The budget cuts that municipalities and states have been placing in effect has caused workers to shout "Basta!" and take to the streets. In Wisconsin, even the unions exempt from Governor Walker's edicts have stood shoulder to shoulder with their union peers.

 

In union comes strength. The firefighters remember the words of Pastor Reinhold Niebur: "Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love."

 

Or to put it more prosaic terms, if they can screw with you, they can screw with me, so I stand with you now.

Nobody Asked Me, But....

1) It's possible that the unrest in Egypt, Bahrain, and the Middle East may actually bring democracy to the nation in most dire need of it: America.

 

2) Shorter Newsmax:

The FBI Says We Will Be Attacked By Muslims With Nukes or WMDs with 100% certainty!,...even if those Muslims actually turn out to be white anti-abortionists and they use conventional weapons.

 What would we do without mainstream conservative media?

 

3) Hey, you know what? Texas may actually end up being a blue state after all! Yea, it will take time. A whole lot of time....

 

4) Could the Tea Party end up like Al Capone? In jail for tax evasion, because it can't be convicted of racketeering?

 

5) I, for one, welcome the mandatory nanny-state public breast feeding stations and have much interest in them! Perhaps there is a website or newsletter one might subscribe to?

 

6) As a victim of both sexual and violent abuse as a child, I hope Scott Brown was not exploiting (or even creating) his experiences for political gain. The story of abused children in this country is one of the most disgusting secrets of American society, and needs to be more fully discussed and brought out into the light of day. My own story I've mentioned before, and while I've dealt with it as an adult, I'm still not prepared for the stigma involved in fully disclosing what happened in such a public forum. Those are two separate stories, by the way, the sexual abuse and the beatings. One was by a stranger, the other by my parents. I'll leave you to figure which was which.

 

7)       MEMO

TO:         Ben Bernanke

 

FROM:    Actor212

 

I have your solution for you: give it all to me.

8) Tea Partier in Mississippi River valley, Spring 2011: "I tell you, there is NO SUCH THING AS GLOBAL WARglugblurglebubble..."

 

    Tea Partier in Oklahoma, February 2011: "He's right, there is no such thing as globalwarmingwhyaremyshoelacesovermyheadnow?"

 

9) It's now official: With this article, sexting is passé.

 

10) By the way...you wondered why I posted Bucky the Squirrel up top of this week's column? Here's why!

Long Stabby Things

Um, yea. Something's got Australians in a bit of a wild mood these days.

 

First came Belinda Heggen and the cracks about something so small being so impressive, and the next day, a very bizarre and sexually charged exchange occured on a morning show.

 

It's almost like I'm writing for them...

Speaking Of Boehner

Guess budget cuts stop at his district:

The incursion into the defense budget occurred as the Republican-controlled House debated legislation to cut federal spending by more than $61 billion through the end of the current fiscal year. Nearly all of the reductions are aimed at domestic programs, ranging from education aid to nutrition, environmental protection and farm programs.

Obama has threatened a veto if the measure reaches his desk, but he and the GOP newcomers were on the same side when it came to the engine for the F-35, the costliest weapons program in U.S. history. The House vote was 238-198.[...]

General Electric and Rolls-Royce are major contractors for the alternative engine, and the program has brought jobs to Ohio, among other regions. Boehner, who represents a district in the western part of the state, did not speak during debate on the issue and did not vote on the proposed cut. A spokesman said he did not attempt to lobby fellow lawmakers.

Uh, yea. Even your own party doesn't buy that you've drank the Kool Aid on budget cuts and they're holding your feet to the fire.

This may turn out to be a more interesting legislative session than even I imagined!

 

I Will Mourn

So should you.

 

Steve Jobs is terminal, say doctors

Look To The Skies

Well,  a few months ago, I posted about the coming solar maximum (2012) and the havoc that could be wreaked on earth's communications, navigations and even electrical systems.

 

Looks like Ol' King Sol will be a year early...

A whopper of a solar flare that fired up earlier this week is wreaking havoc on some radio communications on Earth, and could spark exceptional auroras soon.

The class X solar flare – the most powerful kind of solar flare – spewed from the sun Monday (Feb. 14), unleashing a massive wave of charged particles speeding toward Earth. Now the flare has triggered a geomagnetic storm in our planet's magnetic field that interrupted radio communications in China and could disrupt satellites and power grids as well, AFP reported.

So if your cell phone is acting up today, for once, it's not AT&T...but tonight? If your skies are clear, just shoot a glance north every so often. It could be worth it!

 

How Stupid Do You Have To Be?

Michelle Bachmann stupid, apparently...

Michele Bachmann won't say whether she thinks President Obama is a citizen and a Christian.

"Well, that isn't for me to state," the conservative Minnesota House Republican said today on ABC's Good Morning America. "That's for the president to state."

Obama and aides have repeatedly said the president was born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961, and is a Christian.

"We should take the president at his word," Bachmann said, but she declined to weigh in herself, even when pressed by GMA host George Stephanopoulos.

Look, Mickey...I should take you at your word that you're a woman, but you know, maybe you need to offer up proof? I challenge you to appear naked on the next talk show (that's not on FOX, because I'd like to be able to tune in).

Even John Boehner, who gave  a particularly clumsy answer when David Gregory pressed him this past Sunday on a similar topic (i.e. repudiating rank-and-file Republicans of this mistaken belief), was able to say he took the President at his word.

SPEAKER BOEHNER:  David, it's not my job to tell the American people what to think.  Our job in Washington is to listen to the American people. Having said that, the state of Hawaii has said that he was born there. That's good enough for me.  The president says he's a Christian.  I
accept him at his word.

See, Mickey? Even a klutz like Bonehead can be just a little flat, rather than a half-octave off!

Another Angry Crazy Blogger

I'm pleased as punch to announce that I managed to twist yet another person's arm sufficiently that I forced her to start blogging.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you our own Truculent & Unreliable's Operation Acoustic Kitty.

 

That sounds oddly sexual.

 

Go over and pinch her butt for me...

Anagram Of The Day

Elvis Lives!

 

OK, before you sort of chuckle this off, I want you to think about it for a second.

 

People paid upwards of a thousand dollars for a pair of seats to...Watch. A. Movie.

 

And stood for two hours, screaming and throwing their panties (even the men, presumably).

 

At. A. Movie. Screen.

 

For that kind of money, you could buy a big screen TV with a Blu-Ray player and watch a fucking DVD, or feed a family in Gary, IN for two months! What the fuck is wrong with this country?????

Causalities Of War

Before I begin today's piece, I want to firmly state that in no way should any of the ruminations I post in this piece be taken as a defense or plea for compassion for the perpetrators of the assaults on the women involved. I do not in any way condone or defend their behavior. I grieve for the women involved, and had I been there in person, would have done what I could to prevent the attacks.

 

The nexus of cases of Lara Logan, who was sexually assaulted as Egyptians celebrated the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, and the women involved in the lawsuit against the Pentagon for rapes and sexual assaults that occured in war zones, no less, as well as non-combat military functions, draws attention to one of the more odious, bilious parts of a man's psychology.

 

There is an undeniable connection between aggression and sex.

 

It seems to be innate, perhaps even genetic. That they combine so easily tells me there's some neurochemical bond that is enhanced in the brain, particularly the male brain.

 

One is tempted to excuse it by saying that it's genetic, that our deep ancestry, going back beyond our ape ancestors, equates conquest with, well, conquest. In order to diversify the gene pool, one had to look outside one's immediate surroundings, which usually meant incurring on some other male's turf, and that led to fights and the winner usually got the spoils, including sex with more females.

 

The nature of the beast, as it were. 

 

That temptation, no matter how right it appears, is wrong (and simplistic, but that's for someone far better versed in paleopsychology than me to discourse upon.) 

 

We have other genetic predispositions that we are able to overcome. For instance, it's been shown that babies are born with two fears: falling and reptiles. Yet, people skydive by the millions and goodness knows, enough people own snakes and lizards. 

 

And people have a deathly fear of falling (like me) and reptiles (well...sort of like me). 

 

What I'm saying is that these behaviors can and should be overcome. And perhaps I'm making too little of the fact that, in the millions...no, tens of millions...of men involved in these two stories, a small handful were guilty of not overcoming these urges.

 

This does not excuse them. If anything, it makes their actions that much more disgusting. Millions of their brothers were able to treat these women as human beings, not playthings. 

 

But it does point out two things: we've grown a little as a world in the past fifty years and we still have much growth ahead. 

 

The trigger of violence is what intrigues me in both these stories: men with guns or in a mob or somehow or other over-empowered, will tend to pick on the weaker members of their tribe. First it was television crews in Egypt. These were folks, men and women, who were encumbered by heavy equipment and who were there to cover a story, not because they necessarily supported a cause. The gatherings were violent, angry, passionate. That same passion was sure to fuel other manifestations. 

 

CBS, in other words, probably should have provided Logan with a beefier bodyguard or contingent. The signs were there. 

 

Similarly, aggression in the military towards "friends" did not start with the sexual assault these women suffered. Let's be clear on this: the culture of the military is to actively encourage the depersonalization and dehumanization of people, to train the soldier's mind to discard thoughts of compassion and humanity, to kill.

 

To kill someone is the ultimate act of dehumanization, and the devastation to the mind of the killer is enormous (not ignoring the devastation to the victim). The training a mind has to go through to be able to do that is a process that is guaranteed to dehumanize the soldier.

 

So again, the warning signs were there, and they were enhanced by the fact that so much discipline among the ranks is in the form of peer-to-peer aggression. The "Code Red", made infamous in A Few Good Men, even just cross-shouting about cleaning the barracks or turning the music down before a sergeant shows up, these are all ways of reinforcing that depersonalization, to force normative behavior.

 

To conform or be outted.

 

I realize I open a door to an argument here against repealing DADT or the admission of women to combat roles, so let me say this: there is nothing in this process that cannot be changed at this time. The strategies and tactics of fighting wars have become so depersonalized already, firing from miles if not continents away, that the need to train a soldier to kill face to face, hand to hand, and to do so efficiently and without remorse has been lessened to almost non-existent.

 

The ironic part of the Iraq and Afghan wars is, the men and women who had the least amount of psychological training, Reserves and Guardists, were the ones who were most on the front lines.

 

See, here's where a little knowledge is dangerous. It would not surprise me if the bulk of the assaults in this story are by relatively rookie soldiers, still young and still combat untrained (or generally so). My suspicion is, once you reach a certain experience level, you learn when to turn off the emotion chip and when to turn it back on. The combination of hormones still raging, still unsupressed by humanity and maturity, and fear is probably a powerful violence aphrodisiac.

 

Sadly. Regretfully. Disgustingly.

Is The Stock Market Obsolete?

Felix Salmon, a blogger at Reuters, posted an interesting Op-Ed this weekend in The New York Times

These days a healthy stock market doesn’t mean a healthy economy, as a glance at the high unemployment rate or the low labor-market participation rate will show. The Tea Party is right about one thing: What’s good for Wall Street isn’t necessarily good for Main Street. And the Germans aren’t buying the New York Stock Exchange for its commoditized, highly competitive and ultra-low-margin stock business, but rather for its lucrative derivatives operations.

The stock market is still huge, of course: the companies listed on American exchanges are valued at more than $17 trillion, and they’re not going to disappear in the foreseeable future.

But the glory days of publicly traded companies dominating the American business landscape may be over. The number of companies listed on the major domestic exchanges peaked in 1997 at more than 7,000, and it has been falling ever since. It’s now down to about 4,000 companies, and given its steep downward trend will surely continue to shrink.

In other words, the days of stock exchanges may be numbered. As Salmon himself puts it, they've become a place for speculators and software-driven trading strategies that try to wring every inefficiency out of the markets.

It's true, the original intent of stock markets was a place to raise capital for a company and inefficient companies were punished, while efficient companies rewarded. The theoretical model includes an assumption that every investor can obtain perfect knowledge about the investments, and that no one has this information before anyone else does (insider trading).

But in an age where, to take uncover and take advantage of these microinefficiencies, one must either be a supercomputer or sleep with one, that model is clearly outdated. If in fact it was ever even valid, much less dated. It was likely quaint when those original marketeers sat under the buttonwood tree on Wall Street in 1792. 

So the connection between the performance of a company and its stock price has always been loose, at best, and probably irrelevant. So long as there was a human factor involved, however, there was a certain artistry to the valuation of a company and it usually hewed somewhere in the ballpark of what value should be applied to it. 

Recent history suggests this is no longer the case. As market meltdowns from the Reagan M&A bubble to the savings and loan meltdown to the dot.com bubble and the most recent mortgage crisis have demonstrated, the ability of computerized trading to sniff out the smallest deviations from perfect efficiency and exploit it has created less an exchange of assets trading, and more of a pessimist's paradise, a place where to be bad is to make money, and to have a heart and soul is inefficient. 

If you want to understand the current rising trend in American political thought about the dishumanity felt towards people who need a helping hand, I would suggest it begins and possibly ends with our stock exchanges. If a poorly run company can be savaged in the markets...and goodness knows, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns provide ample evidence of this...then a poorly run household deserves no better, in the eyes of these people. 

It's no illusion that as machines have risen to control the exploitation of these inefficiencies, people have taken a more mechanistic view towards their fellow man. It's also no surprise to me that as people have grown comfortable with the use and programming of machines to do this task, they too have lost their sense of purpose as human beings. 

Humanity has a duty to its civilizations to take care of and to assist its fellow men and women. As the Dalai Lama puts it, "Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive." 

 

All You Need Is Love

Well, it's Valentine's Day, the one day each year that every man in America, and by "America" I mean the world, dreads. It seems a man can never get this occasion quite right: she's allergic to flowers, candy makes her fat, the lingerie is the wrong size-- and heaven help you if you get a size too big!-- and dinner tells her she can't cook. And really, after the diamond-studded fur bathroom sink, how many diamonds can a man buy?

 

And god forbid the man make even the slightest, eensiest joke about sex on "the holiest romanticest day of the year"! Once I cracked wise about getting my heart on all day and she never spoke to me again!

 

Maybe the joke would have worked better in a note, I guess.

 

And none of this takes anything away from the women on Valentine's Day, who have it almost as hard. If she's married, she has to grin and bear the usual clumsy last-minute presents, including (if she has any) the handmade card from the kids. If she's single, she either has to put up with the plethora of invitations from guys who figure they can get some that night easily, or the shame of a silent phone.

 

I'd bet the sales of Haagen-Daz and sweat pants spikes beginning February 1.

 

Hookers look forward to today. They actually get a day off. I'd bet if there were a Hookervania, it would be a national holiday, a day when the blood can flow back into their legs (gender neutral, you'll note).

 

No one else does.

 

Which brings up today's topic: love.

 

The obvious promotional aspect of this holiday aside, why is it necessary to set aside a day, nearly a holiday, to show love to people you care about?

 

If we care about the important people in our lives, what does it matter that one day a year we buy them flowers or candy or jewelry? If I give care to a loved one the other 364 days a year, should I feel guilty because one day I forget to mark an occasion? If I make a life with someone, does it matter that I prefer to show her (or him) thru being a partner 365 days a year, if by missing this silly holiday, she gets angry at me?

 

I'm so over these forced displays that some corporate suit has decided means something in this world. I want simplicity. I don't need Halloween to dress up all scary (most Friday nights will suffice). I don't need the fourth Thursday in November to tell the world "Thank you". I don't need the 25th of December to buy a raft of presents for people I care about. I do that on the spur of the moment.

 

And the people who know me, who care about me and who I care about, who love me, know this about me. I don't need to show love to give love to someone.

 

To love someone is to let them know they matter to you, that what happens to them matters and that you want to help them as you can. Sometimes you can't do enough, and sometimes you end up doing too much, but in the end it all balances out. The Beatles had it right: the love you take is equal to the love you make. You laugh when they're happy, you comfort them and share their pain when they're sad. When they accomplish something, you celebrate, and when they fail, you offer to help pick up the pieces and dust them off.

 

I am loved by many. You proved that last week when my mom died. I wish I could find the time and availability to show up at each of your homes and share the love I felt from you with you, and then add my own love to it, but I can't. And I certainly can't in just one day.

 

So please accept this Valentine as a woefully inadequate raincheck, and just know that, during the year, during our time together, I will give you more hearts and flowers than any ten people could. 

 

I love you and am loved by you, and that is enough.  

 

 

(PS Feel free to copy this note to people you care about. Consider it my Valentine's Day present to you, cheap bastard that I am)

Assholes Pass Gas

Shorter National Review:

White people roooooooooooooooooooool! FTW!

Alternate Sides Parking

Living in a big city, you have to deal with some unique rules.

 

Parking, as an example. Because we don't expect people to be universally considerate about litter, especially away from their own homes, we have a flotilla of trucks and sweepers that descend on neighborhoods to try to either pick up trash before it becomes litter or to move litter into areas where it can be picked up easily.

 

To do that, the city has to designate certain hours of certain days each week as "No Parking" or as we here in the city refer to them "Alternate Side Parking Regulations".

 

Basically, for an hour and a half at least one day a week, if you park a car on a city street you'll be expected to move it, or to expect a ticket (or worse, if the area is congested enough). The city mandates personal responsibility, in other words.

 

This does have some humourous sidelights: the scramble to get to the car before the parking enforcement agent does, the double-parking on the opposite side of the street waiting for the first minute that it's safe to move the car back over, the minuet of waiting until precisely one minute after the deadline (hardy veterans know to wait five minutes), and then locking the car, safe for another day. Circling the block for hours to avoid the cop who motors by looking for people who are double-parked waiting for the spot to become legal, and so on.

 

Normally, these rules are suspended for a day or two during a snowstorm. Plowing the streets becomes concern #1, and it's just safer with cars parked. Two, with enough snow, vehicles often can't be dug out fast enough and empty spots fill up with enough snow that it would take an enterprising motorist the better part of a day to shovel one out (and there are rules...oh lord, but there are rules!)

 

This past month, alternate side rules were suspended more days than is usual during an entire winter, including a complete suspension bridging from January 21 to this past Monday.

 

It's been a parking vacation, in other words: two weeks without running to your car, and moving your ass.

 

That stopped Monday. People are unpleased.

 

This is one time the people are idiots. The weather over the weekend was pretty nice: snow melted, ice cracked open, and there was plenty of opportunity to dig out cars. All over the boroughs, people were shoveling snow into gutters and down storm drains, and digging their cars out.

 

Needless to say, not everyone complied. A ticket blitz ensued to try to make up some of the $38 million spent on snow removal this past month. And so, the whining starts:

But not so fast. Alternate side parking rules went back into effect on Monday, and on that day alone the city wrote just shy of 10,000 tickets -- 9,910. That's nearly double the normal number of 5,460.

It's something that drivers like Karen Risch aren't too happy about. "For them to do it on the first day that alternate side is back in effect is not the most friendly position to take for people who live in the city," she said.

Memo to Karen and people like her: Grow up. Be a citizen.

With My Deepest Appreciations

It would take too long and take up too much bandwidth to reply to each and every one of you who has reached out to me these past few days about my mom, so this rather impersonal post will have to suffice.

Her loss, while not unexpected nor unwelcome (and those of you who know me at all know this has been a relationship that's been stuck in my craw for a while), is still radioactive: it is something that affects us all in the family and circle of friends and infiltrates and penetrates into corners we can never anticipate.

Cleaning out an apartment, as a trivial example.

Your support and friendship has always lifted my spirits when things looked difficult, and once more, you friends have come through for me. I only hope that I have been as supportive and compassionate when you've needed me (and if I haven't, I'm sure I'll here about it now! :-) )

Again, on behalf of my family, me, and ThumbPer, thank you.

Time Out

Posting will be sporadic and hit and miss for the next couple of days.

My mom finally gave up her fight last night and gave into death.

Life goes on, even as the tatters of the flags of childhood flutter off on the winds of time.

Nobody Asked Me, But...

1) Has Egypt seen more history than any other nation on this planet, except maybe China? I wonder how this ranks in its history?

2) PROGRESS! This is good news for the Obama re-election campaign as well as John McCain's presidential aspirations...

3) Tom Brokaw weighs in on Keith Olbermann.

4) Wal-Mart wants to open a store in New York City, which most sane people oppose. So you KNOW who leads the group that WANTS Wal-Mart...the Shrieking "NO MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO, IT DEGRADES NOO YAWK" Harpy herself...

5) I'm no Yankee fan...in fact, I hate the rat Republican bastards...but I have to tip my hat farewell to a class act, Andy Pettite. He's one of the few players who refused to lie when confronted with steroid allegations. Well, maybe "not lie" is not completely true, but he admitted to using them. That counts for something.

6) Iran to world: Ayatollah you so!

7) As if the Middle East and Africa was not enough...comes Southeast Asia.

8) Why the right wing in this country is flipping out over democracy in Egypt.

9) The Navy is pleased to announce it could not locate any enemy submarines in a field in Japan.

10) Finally, Facebook is seven today. See? Even they can't fix their own privacy settings.

Fat Bastard

Shorter K-Lo:

How can we blame Obama for the mess in Egypt? I know, let’s ask a fascist!

He's Irked!

Shorter Irky Irksome:

Barack Hussein Obsama is to blame for the spread of freedom in Egypt

Yes. He BLAMES him!

A Breather

Look, with all the shitty news that's out there today...from the economy to Egypt to the woes of the New York Mets ownership...I thought I'd give you and more important, me, a break and post something truly amusing.

 

Apparently, a Chinese foreign ministry (former) official is claiming that extraterrestrials now live among us.

 

Um, yea. You read that correctly.

 

And here is one of those ETs:

Jerry Wills is an accomplished healer, explorer, and musician with the band UFAUX who recently participated in a world webcast in which Mr. Wills discussed his identity as an extraterrestrial from the Tau Ceti star system (12 light years from Earth) left here as an infant as part of a project of the Council of Worlds for the betterment of Earth.  Mr. Wills has consented to an in-depth exopolitical interview with ExopoliticsTV and Alfred Lambremont Webre.

In this 4-part video interview, Mr. Wills, who is 6 feet 8 inches tall, talks about how he was adopted by a human family, how he dealt with his unusual abilities growing up, how he was visited regularly by an extraterrestrial delegation that briefed him on his extraterrestrial identity and his mission, how during these visits he was told to watch for specific signs during the 18-year period preceding 2012 as to whether the earth and the human population would veer toward peace or war, and how these visits stopped on the day of September 11, 2001, Mr. Wills’ birthday and the date a regularly scheduled visit was of the extraterrestrial delegation to occur. 

I'll let you click thru to watch the interview, but, um, it's a doozy...

 

Reasons For Concern

It really looks like the entire South Asia/Middle East/Northern Africa is about to go up in flames:

 

1) King of Jordan Dismisses His Cabinet

 

2) Poland warns Belarus: Change or risk overthrow

 

3) Turkey: Mubarak Should Leave Now

 

4) India: Raja's arrest does not affect credibility of PM, govt: Congress

 

5) Pakistani soldier killed in border clash with Afghanistan (Roundup)

 

6) Report: Russia to retaliate against Ireland over spy claim

 

7) ANALYSIS-Palestinians expect a boost from new Egypt

 

8) Qatar men linked to terrorism attacks

 

9) Tunisian Interior Minister Says Security Services Spark Unrest

 

10) UPDATE 1-W.African currency zone worried about Ivorian fall-out

 

11) Sudan's protests triggered by long-term economic, political frustrations

 

12) Mubarak Fails to Quell Protests as Turmoil Spreads to Yemen

 

13) How leaders of Bahrain, Jordan, Syria and Yemen plan to keep control

 

14) Unrest in Egypt Risks Spreading Into Algeria, Standard and Poors Forecasts

 

15) African Unrest Puts Europe's Gas at Risk as Oil Gains

 

And then there's Egypt...

 

Look, a few of these, and I think with a little diplomacy and a lot of patience, we might see a peaceful resolution that enhances stability, in the short-term at any rate. What this kind of instability does is makes US foreign policy become a hodgepodge, because not only are these nations troublesome, but any tinpot dictator worth his salt, like Muammar Qaddafi, is going to start rattling sabres, looking to cut a deal with the US that will blow up in our faces eventually like Saddam Hussein did.

 

In the meantime, it only takes a spark...

 

This. Is. Scary.

Simple Evidence

This is your country under global climate change.

 

Any questions?

"Intellectual" Heavyweight

Shorter K-Lo:

Conservatism is as queer as a three-legged stool

 

What It Always Boils Down To

Shorter Dennis Prager:

White men are an oppressed minority, so why am I not getting laid?

Self-Immolation

OK, it looks like 2012 will be the year of overreaching. The hemmorhoids in the asshole of progress, the Teabaggers, are painting bullseyes. Again. Already.

Leaders of more than 70 Tea Party groups in Indiana gathered last weekend to sign a proclamation saying they would all support one candidate — as yet undetermined — in a primary challenge to Senator Richard G. Lugar, the Republican who has represented the state since 1977.

They are organizing early, they say, to prevent what happened last year, when several Tea Party candidates split the vote in Republican Senate primaries, allowing the most establishment of the candidates to win with less than 40 percent. [...]

In Maine, there is already one candidate running on a Tea Party platform against Senator Olympia J. Snowe. Supporters there are seeking others to run, declaring that they, too, will back the person they view as the strongest candidate to avoid splitting their vote. In Utah, the same people who ousted Senator Robert F. Bennett at the state’s Republican convention last spring are now looking at a challenge to Senator Orrin G. Hatch.

First, Orrin Hatch? Really? Granted, you can't get much more establishment than Orrin Hatch, but it's not like he's given the Democrats a leg up on a legislative agenda, and you might want to consider that he's got some credibility in the Senate. But I digress...

The intriguing bit in this clip is that the Teabaggers missed the point of the 2010 election cycle. It wasn't that Teabaggers failed in the Senate primaries, it was that they were soundly rejected in the Senate general elections, and many of the mainstream Republicans who did go on to win actually looked moderate by comparison.

Americans have long loved the dichotomy of a feisty and rancorous House (which is why Teabaggers succeeded there) and a deliberative Senate. As George Washington famously observed, the Senate was where legislation went to cool off, to make it less burny and more palatable to the American people.

The lessons of history are apparently lost on the Teabaggers. You can alter history, it's true, but you cannot reverse human nature, only amend it (or else the racism we see now on the right would be long gone), and there will always be an element of this dichotomy in Congress.

Now, admittedly, the Teabagger movement started after Republicans dropped their ball during the Bush administration....I mean, hell, it only took these assclowns thirty years to catch up to the fact that the Republicans were paying lip service to the whole "tax cuts are good" mantra, rewarding only the uberwealthy and protecting their interests at the expense of the middle and working classes. Four legs bad, two legs good, you see.

 

And it's conceivable we're seeing the start of the downfall of the GOP. The one thing we are not seeing, and will not see, is the rise of the Teabaggers as anything more than a bloated blockage of do-nothings intent on screwing the country more quickly.

 

Unless they grow up. Of course. But then they'd be....Republicans!

 

 

Balk Like An Egyptian

For the life of me, I'm not sure what to make of the whole situation in Egypt.

 

As a freedom-loving American who wants to spread the gospel of liberty, the uprising to me is a good thing. And as Jon Stewart pointed out, we managed to foment regime change without firing a shot or spreading shockandawwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

 

As a student of world history, the unrest in Egypt seems like the kind of fuse-lighting, like the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. That there's this spreading sense of empowerment across the region--Yemen, in particular-- speaks to me that there may be a bit more here than meets the eye. It's a little hard to swallow the party line, that the fall of a Tunisian strongman has fomented this kind of unrest in Egypt.

 

There is precedent, of course. One need look no further than our own American revolution and the influences it had in bringing down the King of France. You'll note, however, there was more than a decade between the two events.

 

Whatever one makes of the differences in communications, and the instantaneity of information now as opposed to the 18th Century, people are still people and emotions are still emotions.

 

Still, as has been said often, no nation is more than three meals away from a revolution.

 

To flesh that out, starve a country and you will get pockets of revolution and starve them long enough, you will get a full-blown uprising. And for sure, Egypt has had problems feeding its people. And keeping the lights on.

 

And finding jobs for youth. And suppressing wages. You Republicans might want to keep a close eye on this.

 

Indeed, Egypt itself and Mubarak in particular have been a Petri dish for civil uprising, having survived the Bread Riots of 1977.

 

Obviously, the American government has had to tread carefully. I like the measured words that both Obama and Hillary Clinton have used over the past few days, and this measured response has not seemed to anger the people of Egypt unduly. I think they recognize that the Americans support more freedom but also have to contend with an ally who has now become troublesome.

 

Indeed, Mubarak's cabinet shuffle seems more about the US pressure than the upward pressure from the people he governs. That Mohammed El-Baradei's name has been bandied about as a successor to Mubarak speaks to me of an American wish expressed in backdoor channels. That particular linkage would go a long way toward res-establishing America's foreign policy credentials in the Middle East. El-Baradei, you might remember, was the UN weapons inspector who the Bush administration all but laughed at when he reported there were no WMDs in Iraq.

 

That he's being named so prominently in the US media (as opposed to, say, Boutros Boutros-Ghali) speaks to me of an encouragement to Baradei and a warning to Mubarak, but also as a signal that America has regrets over the shabby treatment Baradei received.

 

But...

 

The fly in the ointment, and wherever there is unrest, you should always look to the fly in the ointment, is the Muslim Brotherhood. So far, this transnational Islamist movement has made small noises in Egypt, mostly humanitarian gestures to primp its public image, like handing out food and water. Make no mistake, its agenda is to instill Sharia law as firmly as possible in Arab and other Muslim nations, and that they have expressed support for El-Baradei should be looked on with mild alarm.

 

I mean, really, how often are the US and the Muslim Brotherhood going to be on the same side of anything? Someone's being either misinformed or disingenuous.

 

 

Nobody Asked Me, But...

1) It used to be that life was a way to unwind from the stresses of work, but for me, more and more, work is a haven. Which is not saying much. It's a little like saying anal warts relieve the pain of hemmorhoids.

 

2) This thing going on in Egypt has me a bit concerned. The last thing we need is more unrest in the Middle East, and while I can sympathize with the desires of the Egyptian people, like it or not, Egypt is a fairly stable regime and may have helped put a damper on the flames the rest of the Arab world had tried to light under the Palestinian Authority with respect to the Goldstone vote. I think the PA's unwillingness to condemn Israel showed it, once again, is willing to be the adult in the relationship if it has the chance. And Obama's arm-twisting may have helped immensely.

 

3) Also, not all of the collateral damage of the Arab uprisings will work out well. Just sayin'.

 

4) You may recall last year I posted a small item about an anonymous dealer buying up practically all the cocoa on the open market. If you were still wondering why, here. Expect this same scenario with nearly every staple and commodity, from rice to oil to sugar, in the near future.

 

5) It's hard to believe it's been 25 years.

 

6) Once again, Arizona lives up to its new nickname, "Assizona"

 

7) Hawaii may actually show a budget surplus if this gets passed.

 

8) Pity P. Diddy. Even if the suit for ONE. TRILLION. DOLLARS. gets tossed, and it will, he'll still have to bear the brunt of jokes about being a terrorist.

 

9) There's a stripper shortage in Dallas for next week's Super Bowl. This is what happens when you put up a border fence.

 

10) Nothing like a breath of fresh bacon to get your day started.

Notes From The Underwater

Nose Cuttings

It's a rather interesting dilemma, the Republican leadership faces in the Congress:

Congressional Republicans are grappling with dissent within the party's ranks over the size and scope of proposed reductions as they seek to fulfill a campaign promise to slash the federal budget.

The Republican Party's conservative wing has proposed even deeper and potentially more controversial cuts than the GOP's leaders have prescribed — or believe are politically feasible this year. Prospects for reductions in cancer research or the FBI, for example, are causing consternation within the party and controversy in Washington.

The party's leadership already has scaled back a goal of $100 billion in spending cuts in the current budget year, a figure Republicans promised during last year's midterm election campaign. But conservative Republicans are insisting on cuts nearly twice as deep — reaching to $2.5 trillion over 10 years. Party leaders do not believe such cuts are politically or practically achievable.

On the one hand, the "movement" that got them where they are, the Teabaggers, ran and won mostly on anger at spending. Justifying their existence by calling George W Bush a liberal in conservative's clothes, they railed not only against the Obama administration (although it took the brunt of the anger) but also at Republicans who kow-towed to the huge increases in spending that past Republican administrations (both Bushes and Reagan, in other words) have lobbied for and won.

 

(Clinton somehow managed to avoid being tarred with this brush, mostly because he actually cut spending in his eight years. It's just a surprise to me that the spinners of the right wing novel couldn't figure out a way to lie about him. )

 

On the other hand, there are any number of Republicans who will be answerable to their constituents if budgets are cut too deeply. Cancer research, for example, and the FBI are both areas I can imagine citizens will sit up and notice.

 

Even defense, which spreads so much pork that Congresscritters get trichinosis (hat tip Phil Gramm), is not immune from the chopping block, although I wonder how much of that stance is performance art.

 

Here's the thing: the second you exempt Social Security and Medicare (remember the Teabaggers infamous claim "Keep the government out of my Medicare!"?) and defense from spending cuts, and once you've tinkered with interest on the debt, you've effectively left yourself with about $3 trillion in programs, many mandated by statute, to cut. Cut $2.5 trillion out of that, and you can kiss farm subsidies goodbye, along with any effective program for dealing with the homeless, highway funds...in fact, any of the most visible and popular spending programs go by the wayside.

 

One tactic Democrats could counter with is telling the truth: the spending we did on TARP and other bailouts has generated a profit for the US economy and the government coffers. Estimates range up to $30 billion which, on a program of $800 billion, is about a 4% profit. Considering you'd have to buy 30 year T-bills to get that kind of return on any government issued investment, that's not small potatoes. Indeed, many public sector companies would marvel at a net profit margin of 4%.

 

To be honest, I'm astounded that the Democrats, particularly the Obama people, have been so ham-handed in this term with presenting and marketing their policies as good for the country. They've allowed the dialogue to slip away and to be controlled by people who are, at the very least, hostile towards anything Democrats might stand for.

 

It's sad that the best hope this nation has is intraparty squabbling distracting the Republicans so that the Democrats can push through reasonable compromises and peel off some GOP votes.

 

But that's the hand they allowed themselves to be dealt.

 

Flying Turtle

bonaire january 2011 - turtle 4.jpg
Originally uploaded by actor212

I hung out behind a coral head hoping to catch him swimming over me. I was not disappointed.

More photos if you follow the Flickr link in my sidebar.