Confused?

Signs of the Times

As Americans love rankings, mebbe this is worthy of attention. Can't resist relating the US's rank to a favored film, 28 Days Later
or Sooner

Rockets Red Glare

US spent 1.9 million on Palestinian group
Why?
That's taxpayer dollars

Need more Irony?
Australia, a nation of convicts!?! That's so 19th century.

Bearly Breathing

Quammen

Let's look at Germany!

With our "naive optimism"

If they can survive a dictator...

Fog Facts, or my meaningless currency

My latest literary indulgence is Fog Facts, by Larry Beinhart (author of Wag the Dog; see book, and film, and American History.

Quoted: " The number of people who believe in something, irrespective of how illogical it is, is one of the primary factors that separates a clinically delusional belief from a common religious belief."

From Ron Suskind's 'Without a Doubt' NYT magazine 2004- "That's not the way the world works anymore"-a White House aide is quoted-"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality-judiciously, as you will-we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

It's a quick read, recommended for waking the slumbering 'patriot' within. He mentions the Daily Show, (now along with Colbert) perhaps the only mainstream outlet for objectivist journalism. Hmmm.
And for those keeping the dogs of paranoia kenneled, here's his description of "the Soft Machine". Ring a bell?
"(C)apitalism has matured. Like all systems, its first duty is to itself. The Soft Machine is its security system, its enforcement arm and its army of conquest....Totalitarian societies use the Hard Machine. They are called police states....The genius of the Soft Machine is the genius of capitalism...(It) can abaorb conflicting ideas...(It) will readily absorb radical ideas, too, so long as they are moneymakers, and it will turn them into profits or souvenirs. The Sexual Revolution has become the multimillion-dollar porn industry. Rap is now all bling-bling... Malcolm X is a stamp.....
Do you fear the Soft Machine or desire its embrace? The Soft Machine has, and will use, the hard instruments of power and rule. The Soft machine does not give up police and military powers. Indeed, the United States is the world leader in the number of people imprisoned, in the employment of military force, in the possession and use of weapons of mass destruction. But we use those hard instruments only in the context of a consensus, however that consensus is built or has come about... (Y)ou almost never see the Soft Machine as it moves to herd us all together. Sometimes, as with the mis-reporting of election results, although you can't see it, you can see that something must have happened. The Soft Machine is hard to fight. Whom or what do you punch? It's not punching you. It's just offering you something to buy, and its your choice to buy a...burger, and to wear cheap, slave labor jeans from Wal-Mart. No one forces you to get your news from FOX and zone out on reality shows. The Soft Machine not only manufactures consent, it convinces you that its doing it as a favor to you...Since the process is serving you, that puts you, de facto, in charge of that process...As to limiting debate, well, that's up to you, too.... You can't fight the Soft Machine. You don't want to. The Soft Machine is you."

Out with the Garbage

So much energy devoted to what comes in little to what must come out...

Subservient Chicken

yaknowyawanna

Chilled Duck

Now having quietly and without IMAX fanfare made its winged migration halfway around the world (with or without bonus miles?) the "(B)ird flu virus...has made a small change but probably not enough to make it more dangerous yet "
What're you wearing to the Pandemic?!?

Casual User

Half of Our Countrymen on Drugs
Whooda thunk!
Yer slipping there, maestro...

College Smegma-fication Revisited

If the Baby Boom Generation slipped on its way to Nirvana, their retirement might be better spent sooner than later. Its that kind of leadership; and the dull, nihilistic spawn it created, that have the country staring down the barrel of a few pseudo-actualized, under-anticipated realities these days. Or maybe it's just another penny-ante opinion.
Rah!

Middle Class on the Precipice

Elizabeth Warren
used to appear regularly on Moyers Now in support of Moyers (my estimation) concern over an erosion of the bulwarks of middle class existance; real wages, access to healthcare, economic survival of small business etc. She written several books, and I think its fair to say she's onto something that the talking heads are payed to ignore.

Right to Die in America

Ev'body marching down their chosen pike ( 'Hi Ho, In Debt, It's off to Work I Go') eventually brushes up against the reaper, or his coked-up cousin on this side of the curtain, Health Care.
Many close to me have lately (npi). Once we've digested the War (be it Afghanistan, Iraq or Iran), campaign finance reform, and virally multiplying health care expenses, another doozy awaits. If the state controls a fetus, can I ask for directives on my Uncle Cletus?!? It's getting crowded in here

NASA + Ballerina

equals this. Where to begin?

a Lap and Half

Time to explore new 'modes of delivery'. Note to George
Hear the buzz on the street? Ringin' in the new ear.
Gut Check. White noise.
Got a creeping feeling on the back of your neck? Bummer, dude.
No news is good news. Tell me something I dunno-
News has a shiny veneer of thin ice Stopheywhatsthatsound
Shift = SUV's
Coming soon to body near yours:Diabetes in NYC.
Natural Order in the court
Got Ideas ?

LASTLY:
DANIEL GILBERT
Psychologist, Harvard University
The idea that ideas can be dangerous
Dangerous does not mean exciting or bold. It means likely to cause great harm. The most dangerous idea is the only dangerous idea: The idea that ideas can be dangerous.
We live in a world in which people are beheaded, imprisoned, demoted, and censured simply because they have opened their mouths, flapped their lips, and vibrated some air. Yes, those vibrations can make us feel sad or stupid or alienated. Tough shit. That's the price of admission to the marketplace of ideas. Hateful, blasphemous, prejudiced, vulgar, rude, or ignorant remarks are the music of a free society, and the relentless patter of idiots is how we know we're in one. When all the words in our public conversation are fair, good, and true, it's time to make a run for the fence.

thANKS tOM!