Saintperle

11/22/07

Thanksgiving Day thought --

As columnist Jon Carroll has repeatedly pointed out:

Thanksgiving Day doesn't require any religious, nationalistic, ethnocentric, patriotic, or any other pre-condition to celebrate -- just acknowledging an appreciation of and gratitude for the things in your life that are good.*

*(Also having a sort of laissez faire attitude toward the slaughter of turkeys -- there are so many wild turkeys wandering the Oakland Hills, I've come to see them as a particularly amusing form of wildlife and not just as a dip for cranberry sauce and gravy.)


"If the only prayer you ever say is 'Thank you,' that would be enough."
Meister Eckhardt (1260 - 1328)

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11/21/07

SURRENDER? Hell, no!

The Republicans have been bandying that word around a lot, part of a talking point that they introduced this past year...

"The Democrats want to set a date to SURRENDER..."


over and over again and I wonder:

"TO WHOM ARE THEY GOING TO SURRENDER?"

To the American public of which 70+ % wants the government "of the people, for the peoiple and by the people" to get the hell out of Iraq?

To the American troops, of whom veterans safely out from under the UCMJ (which makes it a court-martial offense to publicly criticize the President, and/or to state that the American policy is not very clever*) say about the same 70% want this thing over -- the only difference being that they will stick as long as they can despite being blown up on a daily indefensible basis?

So to whom or what will these bloody-minded kill-crazed sonsofbitches be surrending to?

The Constitution?
The American Voters?
The People who told them all along it was a bad idea?

Do they think the Iraqi's will come over here and do to us what we've done to them, i.e., destroy their homes, families, and country?

The word is NOT "surrender."
The word(s) is/are
"Admit our mistake ."
"Bring the troops home."
"Apologize to the Arab world for being sociopathic murdering thugs."

And the word(s) that will go the longest way to resurrecting international respect for America as well as revivifying our own faith in and respect for our country--

"Indict Bush, Cheney, et al for Crimes Against Humanity."


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*It is not only possible to be court-martialed on a charge of Sedition for saying something like "I don't think we know what the hell we're doing over there," it has been done. I found that out personally, the hard way, long time ago.

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11/18/07

An exceptional and important essay...

Everyone who is interested in our (American) future really needs to read this one --

Philadelphia Inquirer
November 18, 2007

U.S. IN THE TIME OF EMPIRE?

Chris Hedges

"... All great empires and nations decay from within. By the time they hobble off the world stage, overrun by the hordes at the gates or vanishing quietly into the pages of history books, what made them successful and powerful no longer has relevance. This rot takes place over decades, as with the Soviet Union, or, even longer, as with the Roman, Ottoman or Austro-Hungarian empires. It is often imperceptible.

Dying empires cling until the very end to the outward trappings of power. They mask their weakness behind a costly and technologically advanced military. They pursue increasingly unrealistic imperial ambitions. They stifle dissent with efficient and often ruthless mechanisms of control. They lose the capacity for empathy, which allows them to see themselves through the eyes of others, to create a world of accommodation rather than strife. The creeds and noble ideals of the nation become empty cliches, used to justify acts of greater plunder, corruption and violence. By the end, there is only a raw lust for power and few willing to confront it.

The most damning indicators of national decline are upon us. We have watched an oligarchy rise to take economic and political power. The top 1 percent of the population has amassed more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined, creating economic disparities unseen since the Depression..."


Read the rest here:
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And if it did, which it certainly looks as if it's doing, it would be pretty ugly for a while, but in the long run, how bad would it be?

How many people have longed to see these United States become a country that is by the people, of the people and for the people? By that I mean one that does not piss away it's people and fortunes insanely acquiring weapons and choosing presidents according to how many people he or she is able to have killed but minds its own business. That does not mean becoming isolationist, but involved in co-operative relations with other countries rather than having some sick need to dominate them. (Guess what? People in other countries where people just live their lives, often minding their own business, they like our ideals but THEY'RE REALLY TIRED OF US FUCKING WITH THEM, some of them so desperately that they go completely mad and strap on explosives, blowing up anything they see, or take over commercial airplanes and ride them down into buildings where they think every clerk and janitor and secretary is an emissary of Satan and must be destroyed.)

It's important that I say this:

I do not want to see the United States fail or collapse or anything of the sort...

I want to see the United States grow up.

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11/17/07

They curse "the bureaucracy" but bureaucracy was created to stop the plunder of people like that

The French invented bureaucracy to stop the corruption in their government in which powerful people awarded positions and contracts to family and friends -- nepotism and corruption.

Which is exactly what this Bush administration has done.

No wonder they hate bureaucracy -- they ignore it, but as long as it exists, it can be used to investigate and end dirty deals.

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11/5/07

Same words, different meaning

Back in the superbowl era, before the Dorks stole the 49ers from Eddie D, people used to yell:

FORTY-FUCKIN-NINERS!

Now they say:

Ahhh, Fuckin-Forty-Niners

What a different a change in syntax makes.

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11/1/07

The sad decline of Michael Mukasey -- pardon me for not weeping

From Salon.com

By Sidney Blumenthal

""His reputation for integrity was meant to restore credibility to the Justice Department. Instead, his remarks on waterboarding show that he, like Alberto Gonzales, has let the White House call the shots."

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Wotta fucking surprise!

The Bush-Cheney White House takes its tactics from William Burroughs' Naked Lunch, the section titled "The Algebra of Need."

Anyone contemplating working for these lowlifes should think about what they did to Colin Powell and the rest ... they use them and publicly fuck them over and then throw them away like used condoms --- here's the quote that states their management plan:


The junk merchant doesn't sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client.

To be perfectly clear:

The Bush-Cheney creatures do NOT elevate a nominee to the position --

they debase, degrade, and diminish the nominee to their ends ..

and along with that, they debase, degrade, and diminish the position itself until, like Supreme Court Justice and Attorney General, the position becomes a mockery, nothing more than a payoff for a smiling sock puppet.

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A riddle I heard the other day:

Would you rather
(1) get fucked in the ass without lube by Bush and Cheney, or
(2) be nominated to be Attorney General?

The answer: "What's the difference?"

Alternate answer: "Which one pays more?"

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