Beliefnet
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
BY: Jesse Kornbluth
Thought for Today
"Do right and you will be conspicuous."
"Let Freedom Reign"
That was President Bush's
three-word commenton the note Condi Rice passed to him, announcing that "control" of Iraq had been transferred to the Iraqis. (Proof that this note was totally staged: that word "reign." You just know that if he hadn't been rehearsed Bush would have written "rain." And his handwriting! It would have won the penmanship prize at any school Swami attended. But that's Bush--cool even in moments that test your deodorant. Like, say, in a Florida schoolroom on 9/11).
Where was Swami? Oh, in Iraq. The new Iraq, where
Iyad Akmush Kanum, 23, learned the limits of sovereignty on Monday: American prosecutors refused to uphold an Iraqi judges' order acquitting him of attempted murder of coalition troops.
US prosecutors said that he was being returned to the controversial Abu Ghraib prison because under the Geneva Conventions they were not bound by Iraqi law...
"Iraqis who have been detained as a security threat can still be detained until firstly the coalition leaves or secondly they are considered to be no longer a threat," said Michael Frank, deputy special prosecutor for Multinational Force-Iraq (MNFI), who oversaw the case dressed in military fatigues.
Swami also finds himself shaking his head in sorrowful agreement with
Christopher Dickey. From his Newsweek piece about Iraq's new prime minister:
Allawi is best understood as the anointed dictator in waiting. His job is to do whatever needs doing to impose order on the current chaos. Martial law, ruthless repression, you name it. With American firepower to back him up, he's more than ready to take the blame for any rough stuff. Allawi's defense minister proudly vows to chop off the hands and heads of terrorists. As Franklin Roosevelt is supposed to have said about an infamous Nicaraguan dictator, "He's a son of a bitch, but at least he's our son of a bitch."
Make Your Own Church Sign
Have you ever dreamed of borrowing the box of letters at your church, synagogue or mosque, and putting up your own church sign? Just imagine the chaos if we did that! WOMEN! JESUS SENT JOHN JONES TO YOU! or BOW DOWN TO MY WIFE, OR ELSE or OUTSOURCE THE PRESIDENT--and those are just warm-ups.
Well, now you can make your own church sign--without leaving your desk. Go to
Church Sign Generator. (Forget the chain letters. This is something you really do want to share with friends.)
Swami's God (Part 2)
A friend of 40 years read yesterday's blog and wrote to ask: "Uh...you really believe in God?" (Most of Swami's friends are, you may have guessed, in the agnostic/atheist camp.) Swami hemmed and hawed. Then he remembered the night he interviewed
Thich Nhat Hanh, and TNH told him:
This body is not me. I am much more than this body. The space of 50 or 60 or 70 years is not my lifespan. It is not true that I did not exist before I was born. It is not true that I will no longer exist after the disintegration of this body. My ground of being is the reality of no birth, no death. No coming, no going. It is like water is the ground of being of a wave. The wave might be afraid of being or non-being. But if she knows that she is water, she will lose all her fear. Nothing is born...nothing dies. That is a statement made by the French scientist Lavoisier. The Heart Sutra uses exactly the same terms. The day of your so-called death is truly a day of continuation. Birth and death cannot really touch us. If you know that, you will be able to enjoy every second of your daily life--even if you are in terminal illness.
This is Swami's view, too. When he's not utterly freaked out, that is.
From Swami's Mailbag: "Create a Virtual Democracy!"
Unlike the all-knowing Bush Administration, Swami is just another befuddled citizen. (Hey, you were warned--in Swami's very first blog: "This fakir is a bit of a faker.") So he was pleased to get another perspective on saving America from a new Dark Ages from Beliefnet reader Hal McKenzie:
"The grave problems with our government cannot be solved by a change in administration. The problem is that the government we know and love--our representative democracy--has been replaced by a government-corporate kleptocracy that operates in the shadows. It has its own sources of money, its own military forces, its own rules.
"The last 70 years or more were "war years"--we fought two world wars and the so-called Cold War (which was actually extremely "hot" for Third World people). That is enough time for a war-based culture, morality and government to become entrenched and take on a life of its own. Secrecy, deception and the use of deadly force unrestricted by law (to paraphrase Lenin) are key elements of such a war culture...
"But then, as you say, thank God for the internet!
"This is my idea: Create a virtual democracy on the Web. It can follow the basic outline of the Founding Fathers, or we can create a whole new constitution. As a SciFi buff, I think Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars novels contain some great ideas about a new kind of democracy. I think he should be approached for his input on this.
"It can start with an on-line Continental Congress, where people from all walks of life just brainstorm. Then the most well-thought out ideas can be published and put to a vote in a cyber Constitutional Convention, creating something concrete that people can rally around and push for. Then the virtual government can begin to take over from the sham government and root out the shadow government.
"Another idea: We New Agers need an organization modeled after AARP. Yes, the American Association of Retired Persons. You know their slogan: '35 million people dedicated to social change.' I think we should get an organization with 100 million or more members dedicated to social change.
"I used to work for AARP in its mailroom 30 years ago. It is a grass-roots organization. I used to pack boxes full of membership cards, flyers and incorporation kits for people who were establishing AARP chapters all over the country. Based on its huge demographic--baby boomers--it could amass political and legal clout, as well as lots of money. For your $10 membership, you get a high-quality magazine with useful stuff for seniors, lots of discount offerings on travel and what-not, and a lobby in Congress to go to bat for your concerns. Mass mailing is a big factor in its success.
"I also think that Truth, not ideology, should motivate this. The ideologies of the Left are just as outdated and narrow-minded as the fundamentalism of Christians and Muslims. The organization should have Truth in its name, like American Citizens for Truth (ACT).
"The most important thing is, you cannot bring down a mighty edifice by pinpricks alone, guerrilla-style. We need something akin to the Normandy Invasion. That's why it is crucial that we mobilize overwhelming political power that cannot be stamped out piecemeal.
"I have been stewing over these ideas for a long time. Thanks for the opportunity to vent."
Thought for Today
"He is a letter to everyone. You open it. It says, 'Live!'"
The Handover: "We're the Domino's Pizza of Liberation"
To celebrate the Puppet Show--oops, the Iraqi "handover"--there's a new
"Get Your War On"comic. [Caution: not suitable for children or those unfamiliar with Dick Cheney's vocabulary.]
Jon Stewart: "Ours Is the One True God. Others Are Less."
Jon Stewart, host of the Daily Show (required view, Monday through Thursday nights, 11 PM ET, Comedy Central) did
an hour on Larry Kinglast week. The spiritual highlight:
KING: What do you think about religion in politics?
STEWART: I think it should be there, but more. It's just not there enough.
KING: More?
STEWART: Yes. I feel like, you know, I feel like the best thing to do is to convince the country that our God is the one true God and that others are less.
KING: American God, you mean?
STEWART: Yes. The one that blesses us for our manifestness.
KING: He doesn't bless England.
STEWART: No. No. He doesn't care for them. He feels that they're pasty.
KING: Pasty?
STEWART: Pasty and he doesn't care for the food.
KING: But Canada.
STEWART: Happy to have them in the attic, but not so crazy about them in general.
KING: He's a judgmental God.
STEWART: Very angry. Loves the Americans. Very big. Wants us to have bigger cars. Wants us to have bigger cars and as a little goof on us has only made a finite supply of oil. It's very--he's very funny. He's a trickster. Here's another little joke he did. He promised three different religions they were the chosen ones, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and then, funny, follow me, he put their holiest sites all in the same place. And then he backed away and he just wants to see who wants it more. That's what this is about. This is God going, hey, show me something, people.
KING: You kind of like him. You kind of like playing.
STEWART: I enjoy the mischief that he's making.
Swami: Praise God! Now Let's Talk Politics!
Swami gets a lot of mail that can be summarized like this: "Hey, Swami, Beliefnet is a spiritual site. Your blog is supposed to be a spiritual blog. But all you write about is politics: Michael Moore-loving, Bush-hating, lockstep-liberal politics. When are you going to get a clue--or just get the hell out of here and find some place where you belong?"
Or, in the words of Swami's smart-ass, Dean's List stepson: "Why can't you be more like
Loose Canon?"
Swami understands these detractors (or thinks he does). After working a hard day--or even in the middle of a hard day--you look for comfort and relief. You don't crack open a beer, you click on Beliefnet. But instead of that first bracing gulp of spiritual refreshment, you get this jerk ranting about politics.
Is Swami so stupid he thinks he can convince anyone to change his/her mind about George Bush?
Does Swami know so little about spirituality all he can do is recycle political propaganda?
Is Swami so unbalanced he needs a blog as therapy, as catharsis?
Wrong on all counts, Swami insists. Swami is under no illusions that anything he writes will change a mind; all he hopes is to open a mind or two. Swami is no spiritual illiterate; he's been reading (and underlining) spiritual literature before many of you were born. And as for therapy, Swami's done his time (and then some) on the couch--and he's endured enough real life that he can, with justification, say he's been to the Clue Store many, many times.
Also: Swami hates politics.
Huh? If Swami thinks politicians are even bigger fakes than he is, why is he banging on the political drum almost every day?
Two reasons. One: "God told me to." Two: "To keep the Dark Ages from returning."
Swami's Idea of God
Swami believes in Prayer. Swami would bet on a Higher Power. And Swami instinctively "knows" the Buddha was right that there's no beginning, no end, no birth, no death--something deep in us endures.
But Swami, though riveted by Spirit, has lost interest in Religion.
You care how many angels can dance on a pinhead? Is your religious practice rich in Bible study and short on action? Is the unspoken point of your faith to make you and you co-worshippers feel you have a lock on virtue? Do you believe the only way to be saved is through surrender to a God who tells you that you were born in sin?
If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, Swami is NOT diasparaging you. He just believes something else: God cares more what we do than what we say. If we're to be judged, it will be on our actions, not our piety. Do we believe in Jesus/Mohammed/whatever? Prove it. Walk the walk, don't just talk the talk.
Maybe humanity always thinks it's at a Turning Point and that what we do is of immense consequence to the future of the planet. But it surely seems to Swami as if we're at a real Turning Point now. For some, that means the End Times are coming. For Swami, it means that we have a rare opportunity to save our planet--or destroy it. And Swami's personal preference is for a God who wants us to save it.
So politics, for Swami, is belief in action. Are the politicians sincere? Doubtful. But we don't have the luxury of their cynicism. We have to act as evolved beings--we have to hold the politicians to a higher standard.
Which leads us to....
What Are "Good" Politics?
Forget Kerry and Bush. Let's talk issues for a moment. Swami happily endorses the approach favored by the poet, essayist and farmer
Wendell Berry. His whole piece is worth reading, but here's the kernel of his argument:
We now have a clear, inescapable choice that we must make. We can continue to promote a global economic system of unlimited "free trade" among corporations, held together by long and highly vulnerable lines of communication and supply, but now recognizing that such a system will have to be protected by a hugely expensive police force that will be worldwide, whether maintained by one nation or several or all, and that such a police force will be effective precisely to the extent that it oversways the freedom and privacy of the citizens of every nation.Or we can promote a decentralized world economy which would have the aim of assuring to every nation and region a local self-sufficiency in life-supporting goods. This would not eliminate international trade, but it would tend toward a trade in surpluses after local needs had been met.
One of the gravest dangers to us now, second only to further terrorist attacks against our people, is that we will attempt to go on as before with the corporate program of global "free trade", whatever the cost in freedom and civil rights, without self-questioning or self-criticism or public debate.
This is why the substitution of rhetoric for thought, always a temptation in a national crisis, must be resisted by officials and citizens alike. It is hard for ordinary citizens to know what is actually happening in Washington in a time of such great trouble; for all we know, serious and difficult thought may be taking place there. But the talk that we are hearing from politicians, bureaucrats, and commentators has so far tended to reduce the complex problems now facing us to issues of unity, security, normality, and retaliation.
Which leads us, finally, to...
George Bush and the "Dark Ages"
Swami doesn't, as some of you think, hate Bush. (Nor does he worship Clinton or swoon for Kerry.) Swami fears a Bush second term because he thinks Bush represents the forces of Blind Belief--belief in an arrogant, swaggering, male-aggressive America, belief that the Bible and its Evangelical friends have absolute wisdom, belief that we don't need to smarten up and innovate so long as we have the biggest guns and the toughest soldiers.
And that position--though comforting--no longer works.
For instance, Swami has been reading "
Guns, Germs and Steel," the Pulitzer Prize-winning book about "the fates of human societies" by UCLA professor Jared Diamond. Here's sentence one: "This book attempts to provide a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years." Ooops, there go the Creationists. They can't read this book--to them, it's ignorant heresy. Which wouldn't be so bad if the Republican party weren't so fond of these people. Give them more power, and no way will this be a textbook in a government-funded school. And that's just for openers.
Or consider science. We were once the greatest inventors on the planet. Now as the
Washington Monthly reports, your value as a scientist is directly linked to your willingness to support government policies:
The Bush administration has ordered that government scientists must be approved by a senior political appointee before they can participate in meetings convened by the World Health Organization, the leading international health and science agency....."No one knows better than Health and Human Services who the experts are and who can provide the most up-to-date and expert advice," [HHS spokesman Tony] Jewell said. "The World Health Organization does not know the best people to talk to, but HHS knows."
On the environment, we're not a world leader--we're a joke. (The Environmental Protection Agency just created an ad campaign that makes fun of those who want better gas mileage and cleaner cars.) Here's the noted writer
Bill McKibben:
For environmental patriots, proud to live in the country that birthed the national park and the wilderness area, that led the way in cleaning up urban air and dirty rivers, it's hard to go to Europe and be treated with a mix of suspicion and pity. But that's the new reality. Like call centers and sneaker factories, environmental leadership has been outsourced.
How does this President plan to deal with any of these issues? He doesn't. This stuff goes right over his head. Or he declares them non-issues. In any event, these problems get in the way of his supporters' agenda, which is all about dominance and self-interest, so don't expect any progressive ideas from the White House if there's a second term.
Civilized, intelligent debate? Thank God for bloggers and agitators like Michael Moore--if it weren't for us, there'd be almost no contrarian thinking. Most churches seem to be asleep on these matters. Big media is too busy selling fantasy. And as for cable TV,
this is how low it gets:
ALAN COLMES: Are all the American people that don't support him [President George W. Bush] dumb?
ANN COULTER: No. I think, as I indicated in my last book, they're traitors.
And you want me to delight you with my charming views on theology? Sorry to disappoint. Swami's gonna slap on his Kerry pin--not because he loves Kerry, but because four more years of Bush could turn our beloved country into a dull, second-rate backwater--and start marching toward Freedomland.
Got a better idea?
Write Swami. Because, unlike our leaders, Swami knows he doesn't have all the answers.
Thought for Today
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a civilization, it expects what it never was and never will be."
Dave Barry Cracks the Da Vinci Code
Dave Barry suspected that the key to a bestseller is a winning formula. So he studied Dan Brown's blockbuster. Now Dave thinks he's got an idea for a sure-fire hit:
The key to "The Da Vinci Code" is that it's filled with startling plot twists, and almost every chapter ends with a "cliffhanger" so you have to keep reading to see what will happen. Using this formula, I wrote the following blockbuster novel, titled "The Constitution Conundrum." It's fairly short now, but when I get a huge publishing contract I'll flesh it out to 100,000 words by adding sentences.
What's it about?
Read on.
Joke: The Rabbi at the Wailing Wall
In Jerusalem, an American female journalist heard about an old rabbi who visited the Wailing Wall to pray, twice a day, everyday, for a long, long time.
In an effort to check out the story, she goes to the holy site--and there he is! She watches the bearded old man at prayer. After about 45 minutes, when he turns to leave, she approaches him for an interview.
"I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN, sir, how long have you been coming to the Wailing Wall and praying?"
"For about 50 years."
"50 years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?"
"I pray for peace between the Jews and the Arabs. I pray for all the hatred to stop and I pray for all our children to grow up in safety and friendship."
"And how do you feel, sir, after doing this for 50 years?"
"Like I'm talking to a f----g wall."
The Crystal Ball
Swami sees...
...a CD you must buy: Arvo Pärt's "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten"--from his
Tabula RasaCD--is the music heard during the abstract, heart-wrenching World Trade Center sequence in "Fahrenheit 9/11." If you have not heard Arvo Part, trust Swami: This is classical music in the great tradition. How powerful is it? Just one endorsement: In the '80s, a number of men dying of AIDS listened to "Tabula Rasa" obsessively during their final months.
...a police shortage in Iraq: Up to 30,000
Iraqi police officersare to be sacked for being incompetent and unreliable and given a $60 million payoff as the US hands over to an Iraqi government, senior British military sources said yesterday. Many officers either deserted to the insurgents or simply stayed at home during the recent uprisings in Falluja and across the south.
...a surprising endorsement for Michael Moore: You think you know
Dale Earnhardt Jr.?(scroll down to "Heads Explode in Freeperville") He advised his crew to go see the Michael Moore movie "Fahrenheit 9/11." He said hey, it'll be a good bonding experience no matter what your political belief. It's a good thing as an American to go see... and it just shows you that Dale Earnhardt Jr. can reach far beyond the steering wheel.
...yet Another Whopper from Bill O'Reilly: Jack Matthews takes on O'Reilly in the
New York Daily News:
In an April 27 radio debate with a Canadian journalist, you threatened to lead a boycott of Canadian goods if Canada didn't deport two American military deserters, saying that a previous O'Reilly-led boycott of French goods cost that country billions in lost export business. You cited the Paris Business Review as your source for those losses. In fact, Media Matters found no evidence that a Paris Business Review even exists, and France's export business with the U.S. actually increased during the run-up to the Iraq war.
....one or Two Flaws in the Iraq Handoff: As Ambassador Bremer was hightailing it out of Iraq, he left behind some iron-clad edicts that, as the
Washington Post reports, might be less than universally applauded in Bagdhad:
It appears unlikely that all of the orders will be followed. Many of them reflect an idealistic but perhaps futile attempt to impose Western legal, economic and social concepts on a tradition-bound nation that is reveling in anything-goes freedom after 35 years of dictatorial rule.
The orders include rules that cap tax rates at 15 percent, prohibit piracy of intellectual property, ban children younger than 15 from working, and a new traffic code that stipulates the use of a car horn in "emergency conditions only" and requires a driver to "hold the steering wheel with both hands."
Iraq has long been a place where few people pay taxes, where most movies and music are counterfeit, where children often hold down jobs and where traffic laws are rarely obeyed, Iraqis note.
....some Great Parties at the Republican Convention: As the
New York Daily News reports:
With thousands of Republicans set to invade the city this summer, high-priced escorts and strippers are preparing for one grand old party.Agencies are flying in extra call girls from around the globe to meet the expected demand during the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 gathering at Madison Square Garden.
"We have girls from London, Seattle, California, all coming in for that week," said a madam at a Manhattan escort service. "It's the week everyone wants to work."
"It's going to be big," agreed one operator at a midtown escort service.
Charging from $300 to upwards of $1,000 for an hour of companionship and a whole lot more, escorts said they can always count on conventioneers for big business.
Making Friends Wherever We Go
Nabil al-Tikriti, who teaches history part-time at Loyola University, writes on
Juan Cole's blog(scroll down):
There are 15 million people in Istanbul who [are extremely hostile to] Bush. So that he could get a private tour of Topkapi and the rest of Istanbul during this NATO summit, they have closed the following for THREE DAYS: coast road from the airport to Dolmabahce, Galata Bridge, Taksim Square, Besiktas stadium valley, Sirkeci ferry terminals, and the first Bosphorus bridge. Last night we couldn't cross the coast road to view the sunrise from the Marmara. Today we can't get to the islands, because the ferry terminals are closed. Surreal. ... They recommended before the summit that everyone just leave town, and yesterday everyone I tried to contact was on their way to their summer holiday on the beach. It was like Thanksgiving Wednesday in the US.Anyone who knows Istanbul knows that such a closure literally turns the city into an open-air prison. There are snipers posted on the next building to our hotel, constant military helicopters buzzing around, and naval craft cruising offshore. If only for sacrificing three days of their life for Bush's secure comfort, people here are furious. The trend in the past couple of years has been to hold such summits in remote locations. What brainchild decided to hold this summit smack in the center of one of the world's largest cities, with hostility running so high?
John McCain: Another Take
A reader comments on Swami's "open letter" to John McCain, urging him to keep his distance from the President:
"Lesson from those distant masters of Twin Peaks: 'The owls are not what they seem.'
"If Mr. McCain, who is indeed more honorable than snakes and sea-slugs, becomes Vice-President, it is because he is in some inherent fashion, corrupt. The man is, after all, a Republican. Maybe he likes Big Money and gets it from the same place everyone else gets it, but lies about it better. Maybe he has a tragic flaw and has a secret repressed psychological enemy like all the other Republicans--homosexuality, Clintonesque sexual urges, who the hell knows. At any rate, something in the Republican Party caught him and bound him like the One Ring.
"Given that, perhaps he is, nevertheless, possessed of a certain vague level of goodness and moral rectitude. He might really want to do something decent in Iraq and in the world in spite of his hopeless desire for money or repression of some psychological flaw.
"It is a true tragedy that the Democratic Party can no longer even be venal in a good Johnsonian) way nor good in a good way and be perceived as a hope for the American people.
"It's possible that McCain really has a Lyndon lizard brain and is playing his cards correctly. He might know that the junta will not be defeated in November but will crash and burn mightily later, when Much Wuss Things Occur, and then he will be the most honorable man left standing.
"The lines between good and evil sometimes are quite blurred."
Thought for Today
I hear all the people of the world
In one bird's lonely cry
See them trying every way they know how
To make their spirits fly
The Evangelicals Bring Us Good News
Turns out the Republicans don't have a lock on Evangelical Christians--or they won't, if the National Association of Evangelicals has its way. In a draft of a
report that addresses the Christian responseto politics, the Evangelicals reject identification with any party and, instead, focus on issues: social and economic justice, fair wages, health care and the environment.
The report's take on international affairs is a bowl of icy water in the face for the President--it warns against "the excesses of nationalism." Here at home, the report urges Evangelicals to "guard against over-identifying Christian social goals with a single political party, lest nonbelievers think that Christian faith is essentially political in nature."
And this report is not something that will be shared with ministers, who can then accept or reject it at will. As
The Los Angeles Timesreports:
The draft is being reviewed by 100 denominational leaders, seminary presidents and others and is subject to final revisions. But officials said that the draft was essentially complete in its present form and would go before the association's board for approval in October.Evangelical liberals and conservatives, who have collaborated for three years on the document, said they expected it would be approved. If the board approves the framework, it would be widely distributed throughout the country to churches, seminaries and para-church groups, such as the Promise Keepers. It would be viewed as an authoritative statement to guide them in their local political actions. In addition, it would become the main criteria guiding the association's lobbying efforts before Congress and the White House.
Call to Action: Write John McCain
Like many of you, Swami watched John McCain's television appearances over the last few months with ever-increasing admiration. Here was a guy who wrote a book about courage--but never once mentioned his long, brave stint as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Here was a guy slimed by Bush operatives in the 2000 South Carolina primary--and yet he refused to "go there" when interviewers asked if he felt he'd been robbed of the Republican nomination that year.
In those interviews, it was clear that McCain has been exasperated by White House policy in Iraq and at home. And so some Democrats dared to dream he'd be John Kerry's running mate. Kerry and McCain apparently had some theoretical conversations that went nowhere. Still, some of us hoped that McCain could occupy an important post in a Kerry administration--say, Secretary of Defense (if Wesley Clark somehow didn't get that job).
Last week, McCain
campaigned with the Presidentand endorsed the President's strategy in Iraq. And now there's talk that Vice President Cheney--citing "health reasons" (or his need to prepare his legal defense in case he's indicted for leaking the name of a CIA undercover agent)--will step down and MCain will become Bush's running mate. In that scenario, Bush gains a remarkable asset: a man of unquestioned integrity. In that scenario, Bush rises in the polls and steams to victory in November.
Some of Swami's friends are beside themselves with anxiety. Swami hears them. And as one who would welcome Bush's return to Texas, Swami would like to short-circuit the Bush-McCain ticket. Unlike certain Republicans, however, Swami would like to do this on the spiritual level--that is, with ethics as the centerpiece of his argument.
So Swami has written a letter to John McCain. Maybe you'd like to write one of your own. Or, if you're feeling lazy, cut and paste Swami's text into the e-mail form. McCain's address:
Contact Sen. McCain. (Swami scrolled down to the bottom of the list of TOPICS, and chose "other").
Swami's letter:
President Bush has not asked you to be his running mate this fall. He may not ask. But if he does--and you agree to run as his Vice President--it will be too late to send you this letter. Indeed, it will be too late to do much more than mourn for your fall from grace.
Right now, you occupy a rare place of honor in American politics. You are a man of integrity, not owned by special interests. You not only have a conscience, you use it. And what you say is what you mean--you don't create verbal loopholes that allow you to wiggle out of your opinions should they become inconvenient.
President Bush, on the other hand, is a man of self-proclaimed integrity whose actions don't square with his words. In Iraq and at home, he has minimal credibility. He has many slogans but few ideas. And the men and women who work for him seem to spend more time giving him deniability than achieving anything good for the American people.
Were you to be his running mate, your integrity would cover many of his sins. But only for a whole. As you know, values almost never flow upward --- it's just the other way. So President Bush's lack of integrity would inevitably erode your honor. Your place in history would be tarnished. Many of your admirers--myself included--would probably become detractors.
I understand you may want to run for President in 2008. Though I am not a Republican, I would happily cast my vote for you. But the way to get that nomination is not to serve four years as Bush's Vice President. If asked, please tell him: "Thanks, but no thanks."
Something More About Mary
You may recall Swami's puzzlement about Air Force General Counsel Mary Walker, who helped devise the legal theory that the laws outlawing torture can be unilaterally overturned by the President of the United States--and yet descibes herself as a Christian who integrates her faith with her life and work.
In
her words:
If you limit God to one place in your life, like Sunday in church, you will never experience the excitement that life can hold. When God is the center of your life and everything you do revolves around His plans for you and the world, then that is when life really gets exciting. It's a travesty to be in a place of strategic importance to the world as a business or political leader and not allow God to accomplish the truly significant through you.
Swami has read more about Ms. Walker. And he has a new question: Was God working through you when you helped senior Pentagon officials evade responsibility for sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy?
The scandal at the Air Force Academy, in brief: After many assaults had been reported and ignored, five female cadets charged that rape, assault and harassment were common at the Academy. But nothing was done to punish the guilty. Last year, Mary Walker was asked to investigate and suggest reforms.
Her
reportconcluded that there had been no cover-up, nor had there been any "systematic acceptance of sexual assault at the academy, institutional avoidance of responsibility, or systematic maltreatment of cadets who report sexual assault." In short, as she told
CNN, it was that old story--a few bad apples: "We're talking about a very small percentage of the cadet population."
Later, thanks to
another investigation(by the Defense Department Inspector General's Office), we learned there were lots of bad apples: Between 1993 and 2002, there were 142 allegations of sexual assault at the academy. And a follow-up survey by the Defense Department revealed that an astounding 20% of female cadets said they had been sexually assaulted at the Air Force Academy--but only 19% reported the crimes for fear they'd be punished. Of those who did report assaults, half said there had been some retaliation.
Those revelations led Congress to commission yet
another investigation:
The panel noted that Walker's investigation, which cost taxpayers nearly $200,000 and spanned five months, "avoids any reference to the responsibility of Air Force Headquarters for the failure of leadership."The omissions, the panel said, undermined the credibility of Walker's finding there was no "systemic acceptance" or "institutional avoidance of responsibility."
Some members of Walker's 13-person working group knew of investigations of the academy's sexual assault process in 1996 and again in 2000...
Walker acknowledged in a June interview that she didn't share some of that information with her group because she didn't see it as important.
What would Jesus say?
The Thing About "Leadership"
Senator Joseph Biden, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a
Rolling Stone magazine roundtableabout Iraq:
About six months ago, the president said to me, "Well, at least I make strong decisions, I lead." I said, "Mr. President, look behind you. Leaders have followers. No one's following. Nobody."
Thought for Today
"The most disturbing aspect of 'morality' seems to me to be the frequency with which the word now appears; in the press, on television, in the most perfunctory kinds of conversation...when we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something or need something, not that it is a pragmatic necessity for us to have it, but that it is a moral imperative that we have it, then is when we join the fashionable madmen, and then is when the thin whine of hysteria is heard in the land, and then is when we are in bad trouble. And I suspect we are already there."
Cheat Sheet: The Bill Clinton Book
Scenario #1: You bought
My Lifeand lugged it home. Or someone gave it to you. But there's just too much of it.
Scenario #2: You're never going to read 957 pages by that jerk, or even one. But still...you're curious. You'd like to know What's In It--you know, the "good stuff," and by that, because you really are A Serious Person, you don't mean just Monica.
Well, give a Beliefnet shout out--okay, a silent prayer--for a handy-dandy
cheat sheet.
Your President in Action (Who's in Charge?)
From a
Newsweek pieceon decision-making on 9/11:
America was under attack, and somebody had to make a decision. Dick Cheney, huddled in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center under the White House, had just urged the traveling George W. Bush not to return to Washington. The president had left Florida aboard Air Force One at 9:55 a.m. on 9/11 "with no destination at take-off," as last week's 9-11 Commission report noted. Nor had Bush given any known instructions on how to respond to the attacks.
Today in Iraq: This Is Progress?
As Swami was reading about the 70+ people dead in attacks by Iraqi "insurgents" today, two paragraphs from a
news report from AOL(members only) jumped out:
U.S. forces manning a checkpoint opened fire on a local government convoy that included Fallujah's mayor and police chief, who were trying to meet the Americans to discuss the violence, an Iraqi police lieutenant said on condition of anonymity. The convoy turned back, and no injuries were reported.A motorist who drove through Fallujah Thursday morning said Iraqi police and insurgents were cooperating, chatting amicably along the streets, and seemed to be working together.
The good news from Iraq? Swami can't recall. 24/7 electricity in Bagdhad? No. Not close. New schools open? Maybe. But the traitorous "liberal media" will never tell us how many. Hmm. Swami looks. But sees nothing.
Oh, wait! Maybe this: We're being imitated (the sincerest form of flattery, right?). As the
Inter Press Service News Agencyreports:
In what may be the first concrete example of the effects of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal in Iraq, lawyers and human rights groups in Egypt, a major U.S. ally in the Middle East, say that local police are increasingly resorting to new torture tactics similar to those used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.Several lawyers and human rights groups told IPS in phone interviews over the past two weeks that the Egyptian State Security Police used methods that mirrored those in Abu Ghraib, like stripping some detainees naked--a rare practice in Egyptian prisons, even though the country has a long record of human rights abuses and prison torture.
Other practices include taking pictures or threatening to take pictures of prisoners naked, which the groups say was a hugely uncommon occurrence in the past; and blindfolding and handcuffing detainees for long periods of time, which also prevented them from fulfilling their religious obligations, such as praying five times a day.
Abu Ghraib? Or Abu Garif?
Swami's no mindreader. Particularly when it comes to George Bush. So he has no idea why, after months of publicity about the biggest U.S. military scandal since the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, President Bush yesterday called the notorious Iraqi prison "Abu Garif."
This has gone unreported in the press. You had to watch "
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" to see the President butcher the name. But then you have to watch "The Daily Show" Monday through Thursday nights just to know there's somebody sane on TV.
Is This Your Kid?
Channel One News
wants to know how election issues like education, the economy and the war on terror affect teens, so it's looking for half a dozen teens for a project called Team OneVote. Six students of all backgrounds, from all parts of the country, will be an integral part of Channel One News and ChannelOne.com by providing video diaries and by keeping an online blog. (Video cameras are provided to team members.) Then Channel One will fly the 6 teenagers to Los Angeles to cast their votes on-camera in a OneVote television special.
Interested? Here's the
application.
Thought for Today
"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."
The Hottest Sex on TV (Thank Rupert Murdoch)
(CAUTION: This item may contain language and descriptions that will offend some readers.)
If you read reviews of "Nip/Tuck" in the
Chicago Tribuneor
CNN, you might think this TV drama will continue to focus on the gritty, bloody business of plastic surgery.
But as Ed Martin notes in the Jack Myers Entertainment Report, an industry insider newsletter, about the first three episodes of the new season: "In terms of language, 'Nip/Tuck' is one F word and two C words away from R-rated entertainment."
And the language is mild compared to the sex:
More skin is more frequently on display on this show than on any other, with the possible exception of Showtime's "Queer as Folk"... The male leads on "Nip/Tuck" now bare their backsides with greater frequency than any of the men on "Queer as Folk." We even see one of them fully nude from behind, positioned between the legs of naked women and doing the pelvic thrust.
It gets raunchier. On you-pay-for-it-so-you-know-what-you're-getting HBO, "Sex and the City" practically turned Oral Sex into a character. But on "Nip/Tuck"--which is shown on basic cable--you can see (in next week's episode) a doctor get his nose broken when his lover sneezes during oral sex. There's more oral sex in the third episode. And for good measure, "Nip/Tuck" tosses in a gang-bang and female masturbation.
The network? FX, a division of Fox, the same Rupert Murdoch-owned company that brings you such defenders of true-blue America as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.
Granted: "Nip/Tuck" isn't shown until 10 or 11 PM, presumably well after the bedtime of Impressionable Youth--but not too late for teens. And yet, on the same day that Swami learned about the raunch on "Nip/Tuck,"
the Motion Picture Association of America decreedthat Michael Moore's "Farenheit 9/11" would retain its R-rating--that unaccompanied teens under 17 couldn't see it.
Swami doesn't understand. There is less violence in Moore's film than in a single reel of any movie with Arnold or Bruce or Vin. (Yes, it's real violence--Swami won't forget that dead baby--but not much of it.) And no sex, unless you count the scene in which American soldiers sexually humiliate an Iraqi prisoner.
Maybe that's it: "Farenheit 9/11" doesn't have enough sex. And that makes the violence stand out. Swami can't think of another explanation--because the MPA surely wouldn't make a ratings decision based on politics.
On the other hand, maybe this is a good thing. You want your kids to see "Farenheit," you have to take them. And you know: The family that prays together--oops: sees films together--stays together.
Another family activity: MoveOn is sponsoring
house parties for Moore's filmnext Monday. The idea is for you to gather with friends and talk about the film and then join Moore for an online conversation. If you bring the tots, you'll at least know the answer to that age-old question: "It's ten o'clock. Do you know where your children are?"
Did You Know...
...that our Armed Forces
are recruiting soldiers from outside the United Statesto fight the war that our home-bred youth aren't rushing to die in?
This is from an interview with Fernando Juarez del Solar, father of Jesus Suarez del Solar, a Mexican who joined the Army and died in Iraq:
Q: I understand that the military is recruiting youth from the Philippines, from Mexico, people of color in the Third World. Was your son living in Mexico when he was contacted?A: Yes. When he came to San Diego he had a green card.
Q: Where do recruiters contact young people?
A: On the border there are lots of recruiting offices. Last year, around October, this one recruiter crossed the border into Mexico and recruited young boys from a school in Mexico.
Q: What kind of promises did he make?
A: According to what I heard, the recruiters say, "You can go to the U.S.A. and enter high school and enter a military program in high school." ....They offer education and a formal offer of citizenship. That's not all. Here in the U.S., they recruit kids in the barrios. They contact them when they are 14, 15 years old. And they say to our kids, "It's not a problem you do not have papers. You can enter the program and we will help you with the papers and immigration. You just need to do well in school and our program."
And critics get annoyed at Michael Moore for claiming in "Farenheit 9/11" that we get the poor and disenfranchised--the men women with the smallest stake in America--to do our fighting and dying for us!
Today's Call to Action: Assault Weapons
Good news for terrorists! Just 19 legislative days until the Assault Weapons Ban will expire. And then weapons like AK-47s, Uzis and TEC-9 assault pistols will be back on the streets again.
You may ask: Why would anyone want this ban to expire?
Well, almost no one does. Nearly 80 percent of Americans support renewal of the ban. Police organizations across the country have called on Congress to renew the ban. A majority of Senators support the legislation, and despite the opposition of the Republican leadership to bringing the issue up for a vote, support in the House for renewal of the ban also continues to grow.
Naturally, the National Rifle Association opposes the ban--but then, the NRA would aggressively defend your right to own a tank, a cannon, or even a rocket-powered nuclear weapon.
The NRA position seems dumb when you think of the scenarios that could play out if these weapons become legal again. Eighteen-year-olds could buy new American-made AK-47s. In many states, it will be possible to bring concealed TEC-9 assault pistols, loaded with thirty rounds of ammunition, into bars, churches and sports arenas, and even public schools or universities. Kids as young as 13 will be able to buy brand new American-made AK-47s at gun shows and through classified ads. New rapid-fire ammunition magazines that allow guns to fire up to 100 rounds without reloading will be mass-produced and sold on a cash-and-carry basis to anyone, with no questions or background checks.
And, of course, thanks to all the loopholes the government has created for gun buyers, terrorists will legally be able to purchase American-made AK-47s.
Where is President Bush? We all know: If the President pushes for it, the ban will probably be reauthorized. But--big surprise--he's been playing politics with this issue.
Well, you can play politics too. For more information, visit
StoptheNRA.com.
Thought for Today
It is said that on the hilt of Prophet Mohammed's sword were the words: Forgive him who wrongs you; join him who cuts you off; do good to him who does evil to you, and speak the truth although it may be against yourself.
Bill Clinton Has a Blog?
When you've got 1.5 million books to sell, you do what you have to do. Blogging's "hot"--so why not Clinton? A sample of
Bill Clinton's blog:
I don't know. I don't know. The day began wonderfully. Hillary had to go to Washington. She kissed me goodbye. I mean really kissed me goodbye. Not the obligatory peck on the cheek I had become accustomed to. Our relationship has gone to a deeper level of intimacy these past few days....
And if you believe that...
Yes, it's a parody. And a smutty one at that (children: look away). But it does remind Swami of...
The Sanctity of Marriage
Good news for lovers:
Little White Wedding Chapelin Las Vegas--"exactly 1 mile North of Sahara Hotel"--has recently expanded its Drive Thru Tunnel Of Vows "to include a romantic ceiling with cherubs and starlights."
Just the thing for couples craving "a unique, yet romantic ceremony." (You know who you are: so out-of-your-head crazy to be hitched you don't even want to take the time to unbuckle.)
And, of course, those are the marriages that last and last...
Tropic of Cancer
Forty years ago today, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court
ruling that found Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer"to be obscene. Swami read the book soon after, and as an impressionable teen, was knocked out. Not by the sex--though there was more than enough to rile a prude and thrill an open-minded reader. By the honesty. Consider this sample:
It may be that we are doomed, that there is no hope for us, any of us, but if that is so then let us set up a last agonizing, bloodcurdling howl, a screech of defiance, a war whoop! Away with lamentation! Away with elegies and dirges! Away with biographies and histories, and libraries and museums! Let the dead eat the dead. Let us living ones dance about the rim of the crater, a last expiring dance. But a dance!
And now for some real pornography...
Bush Initiative: Drug Your Kids
When a government gets interested in "mental illness," it's not because it cares about the mentally ill. Just look back to the classic examples: the USSR and China. For them, "crazy" was a euphemism for "dissident"--which makes a screwy kind of sense; you probably had to be a bit nuts to challenge those nightmare dictatorships--and the "facilities" they sent the "mentally ill" to looked a lot like prison camps.
Well, guess what? America's next.
This headline from the British Medical Journal website is a neat summary of
the government's breathtaking intent:
"Bush plans to screen whole U.S. population for mental illness."
This mental health initiative--to be announced next month--differs from the Soviet/Chinese model. Instead of taking the crazies away, it seeks to provide mental health services "in the community."
Testing everyone is a big job, even for this can-do president. So the first mental health screening will focus on kids--including preschool children:
According to the commission, "Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviours and emotional disorders." Schools, wrote the commission, are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.
This plan has had a dry-run--in Texas (natch), where the state researchers recommended "newer, more expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs." This caused Allen Jones, an employee of the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General, to become a whistleblower: He charged that officials who dealt with the medication plan got money and swag from drug companies--and that the mentally ill would be prescribed "expensive, patented medications of questionable benefit and deadly side effects." Unsurprisingly, he concluded that "private insurers [would be forced] to pick up more of the tab." His reward: He got fired.
Now let's go back to our school years, shall we? Not to the crazy stuff we did that might, in these times, qualify us for medication, but to English class. Does any of this sound familiar? Bueller?
Right, this reminds us of "
Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. In that dystopia [your vocab builder for the day: it means "negative utopia"], the government hands out a drug called "soma," which takes the edge off all unpleasantness.
Soma has "all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol, none of their defects." As Huxley notes:
And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gram tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your mortality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears--that's what soma is.
Swami bets that many of you are taking drugs now that achieve that same effect. But there's a big difference between you and your doctor deciding you should take medication and the drugging--perhaps involuntary--of many millions of people by the government. Or is Swami mad?
Just to keep the image-mongering straight: Wasn't it Bush who believed that government should do less? After all, when he wanted to cut taxes, he told us, "Hey, it's your money." But now that it's about what we think, he'd like the government to be installed in our heads.
Oh, wait. Swami forgot. This isn't about creeping fascism after all. It's so much simpler: Drug companies have donated three times as much to Bush's campaign as they have to Kerry's. And you know how it is with contributors: They want payback.
Swami's sure you won't mind at all when your kid's school calls to talk about his/her need for medication. Profits for drug companies are important, dammit. If the government gains social and behavioral control at the same time--well, isn't that a neat bonus? And as for those who'd resist...well, they'd have to be crazy, wouldn't they?
Question for
Loose Canonand the rest of the Republican true believers: Is this one of the ideas that makes Bush your dream president?
Thought for Today
In a public meeting, the great Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki was asked to define Buddhism in a single sentence. The audience tittered because, clearly, that was impossible.
But Suzuki had a ready answer. "Easy," he said. "Things change."
How Low Can O'Reilly Go?
Bill O'Reilly's fangs are getting sharper. Or maybe it's that Swami watches O'Reilly so infrequently that he can note the changes in his appearance. Radio? It would seem that O'Reilly is constant here--constantly nasty, denigrating and, in this case, constantly racist.
Consider his
June 17th radio broadcast. On that day, he announced that he has "no respect for" the Iraqi people"--"they're a prehistoric group" and totally "primitive." What has he learned from the Iraq war? "We cannot intervene in the Muslim world ever again. What we can do is bomb the living daylights out of them."
You may wonder: What inspired such vitriol? A poll commissioned by the Coalition Provisional Authority that found that only 2 percent of Iraqis view American troops as liberators and 55 percent would feel safer if our soldiers left Iraq.
Trent Lott Has No Kid in Iraq
Trent Lott was his usual charming self in this
Q&Ain the Sunday New York Times Magazine. The best question: You recently created a stir when you defended the interrogation techniques at Abu Ghraib. Lott's response:
Most of the people in Mississippi came up to me and said: "Thank Goodness. America comes first." Interrogation is not a Sunday-school class. You don't get information that will save American lives by withholding pancakes.
White House: Boiling People Is Okay
There's always a new "initiative" in the Bush White House. Here's one you might not know about: The Millennium Challenge Account, which accounts for a $10 billion increase in American aid by 2006 for governments that "make the right choices for their own people." For those governments, that includes increased respect for human rights and an anti-corruption effort.
It is amazing to Swami that Uzbekistan is on that list.
Human Rights Watchlists some stunning human rights violations. And
The Memory Holedetails a dozen or so cases of torture and notes a method not widely seen elsewhere: Uzbekistan's Dictator has reportedly boiled people alive.
Is there, perhaps, oil in Uzbekistan?
Outsourcing Prayer
The shortage of priests in America has led to a familiar ourcome:
outsourcing prayer. Can you believe this?
With Roman Catholic clergy in short supply in the United States, Indian priests are picking up some of their work, saying Mass for special intentions, in a sacred if unusual version of outsourcing. In Kerala, a state on the southwestern coast with one of the largest concentrations of Christians in India, churches often receive intentions from overseas. The Reverend Paul Thelakkat, a Cochin-based spokesman for the Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church, said, "The prayer is heartfelt, and every prayer is treated as the same whether it is paid for in dollars, euros or in rupees.
The good news: The fee is just a few rupees.
Thought for Today
Our word 'idiot' comes from the Greek name for the man who took no share in public matters."
Today's Call to Action
Jeffrey Akman, the chair of the psychiatry department at George Washington University, has been receiving email messages from members of the public demanding that the university censure and/or dismiss Dr. Justin Frank from his clinical professor appointment for publishing his book "
Bush on the Couch."
Whether or not you agree with what Dr. Frank has written, this is a frightening development for everyone who cares about academic freedom. Fortunately, Dr. Akman is a gracious colleague who has kept Dr. Frank informed of this development. It might be helpful to him hear from those who appreciate that GWU values free speech and diverse opinions.
If you would like to send a message praising the university's support of academic freedom in general, or Justin Frank in particular, please write to Dr. Jeffrey S. Akman:
jakman@mfa.gwu.edu.
Reward for Conscientious Service
What happened to David Kay when he came home from Iraq and told everyone he had searched high and low--but there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Washington Monthly reports:
CIA leaders refused to accept Kay's stark assessment when he returned from Iraq last December that most prewar assessments of Iraq's weapons were wrong. Kay was assigned a tiny office far from the executive suites, without a working computer or secure telephone.
Ted Kennedy Disses the Pope
You'll recall--how can you not?--that Vatican honcho Francis Cardinal Arinze has called pro-choice Catholic politicians (think: John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, and You Know Who You Are) "not fit" to receive Communion.
Ted Kennedy
has struck back:
"This pope gave Communion to Gen. [Augusto] Pinochet," the brutal Chilean dictator accused of murders and human-rights violations, Boston magazine quotes Kennedy as saying.
To be fair to His Holiness, the article also notes:
The pope did pray with Pinochet during his 1987 visit, but he also spoke out for democracy, praised anti-Pinochet bishops, met with opposition leaders and told reporters that Pinochet's regime was "dictatorial" and suggested the church could help overthrow it.
Bill Clinton's Spiritual Lesson
After the premiere of
The Hunting of the President, The Big Dog made "a few remarks" that lasted about 45 minutes. (Man, that guy can talk.) Swami will spare you an account of his historical and political ramblings (you're welcome) and will focus instead on the spiritual lessons he shared:
It's a mistake for us to treat them [the Right] the way they treat us. If we do that, they own us.
C'mon, boy, you can do better than that.
I don't wake up hating Ken Starr. I wake up pitying people who think they have the whole truth and can trample over people.
Better, but doesn't quite cut it as a sound bite.
If you want to be forgiven, you have to give forgiveness--even to those who aren't smart enough to ask for it.
Yes! That's our Bill! (Before you say, "What an arrogant jerk," close your eyes and picture George Bush delivering that line--okay, scripted by others rather than thought up on the spot--with the little smirk that signals "joke." Works, doesn't it?)
The Blood of Strangers
The life of our friend Rosemary Breslin (1957-2004) was celebrated at St. Francis of Assisi R.C. Church in New York yesterday. Nothing is less interesting than the account of a funeral of a person you didn't know, so Swami will skip over the emotion to focus on a single fact.
Rosemary Breslin had a rare blood disorder that effectively deprived her of a functioning immune system. For 15 years, she was kept alive by all-too-frequent transfusions. Yes, her New York friends donated blood along the way, but more often than not, when Rosemary's nurse would call out the source of packets of blood, the origin would be a state in the midwest.
To be kept alive by the kindness of strangers! For all those years! If only there were a way to tell all those people how much their gift helped an extraordinary woman do great work, co-create a model marriage and serve as an inspiration to all. If only there were a way to bottle that love!
Thought for Today
So come, my friends, be not afraid.
We are so lightly here.
It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.
Though all the maps of blood and flesh
Are posted on the door,
There's no one who has told us yet
What Boogie Street is for.
(Note: for Cohen, "Boogie Street" is the material world, with all its lures and snares.)
Still More Moore
In today's Washington Post,
Tina Brownfinds "Farenheit 9/11" filled with "wacky insinuations"--but so powerful it glides over its Moore-made potholes.
This Sunday, on "
Topic A," her weekly "views magazine," she'll be showing several clips from the film--and discussing it with some big-mouthed contrarians.
The Hunting of the President
A documentary movie Ms. Brown liked rather more is "
The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill Clinton," adapted from
the ably-reported bookby Joe Conason and Gene Lyons. The film opens in New York this weekend (at the Angelika Theater) and on June 25th in Washington, D.C.
Swami went to the premiere last night and was much impressed by the careful, fact-based account of the complex non-story that was Whitewater. A "special guest" had been advertised, and as the lights went up, to no one's great surprise, there was Bill Clinton. He wore a navy suit, TV-blue shirt and yellow tie, and he was tall and slender and tanned, and immediately Swami thought of what
The Rude Pundit(caution: he is aptly named) wrote the other day:
So yesterday the Rude Pundit did his laundry. And in that fine urban laundromat, the Rude Pundit was alone with the Chinese immigrant and Nuyorican women who work there. The television was tuned to CNN, where the "news" network paused in its Scott Peterson trial coverage to show the unveiling of the portraits of Bill and Hillary Clinton. George W. Bush spoke, earnestly, kindly, even transcendantly (in the context of Bush's politics), about the Clintons, but it was a typical "performance" by "compassionate" George--trying too hard, awkwardly pausing and smirking. We folded laundry, transferred things to dryers, and occasionally paused and watched. Then Bill Clinton began to speak, and all three of us stopped, almost at the same time, and turned to the television above the change machine and saw this man with such a command of self and words and such a knowledge of audience and humanity, someone funny, wise, and comforting. When he was finished, the Rude Pundit said, "Remember when we had a President?" The Nuyorican woman laughed, the Chinese woman nodded, and we may as well have all sighed in lust over Clinton, remembering a time when our President stood tall when he spoke, spine straight, not hunched over like a French bellringer.
So what did the Big Dog say? Tune in tomorrow.
The Kathie Lee We Love
Newsweek writer
Chris Dickeywrites: I completely support the idea of changing the Anthem from the militaristic "we're all victims standing strong in the face of adversity during a punitive action we failed to repel" tone of the "Star-Spangled Banner" to an ecologically inspired paean to patriotism by an anti-war, and especially anti-imperialist, activist. Michael Moore would have loved this lady.
And he passes on a line from another poem by Katharine Lee Bates:
One of the most elegant critiques [of the American pacification of the Philippines] was made by a poet, Katharine Lee Bates, author of "America the Beautiful." She also wrote an anthem to those slaughtered by Americans in the Philippines: "The flag that dreamed of delivering / Shudders and droops like a broken wing."
Dang, that Sister of Sappho could write!
What Would Snoop Dogg Say?
The arrival in Swami's mailboz of
Snoop Dogg's "Shizzolator"--a device that translates text into Dogg--couldn't be resisted.
For those who have trouble grasping Swami in English, try a recent Swami entry in Dogg:
Yo' ass really didn't think, after Disney announced that shiznit wouldn't distribute Michael Moore's movie 'n da Weinstein brothers wrestled that shiznit away from Disney 'n into da delighted hands of other distributors, that "Farenheit 9/11" would sail into da theaters without some serious opposition, did yo' ass? Yo' ass didn't think da film would come out 'n yo' ass'd read reviews (or not) 'n go see that shiznit (or not) 'n just generally make up yo' mind fo' yourself, do yo' ass?Silly yo' ass--that's da OLD American Way n' shit.
Here's a bit of Shizzolated CNN:
At least 35 muthas wuz capped 'n some 138 wounded today when an apparent suicide hooptie bomber targeted an Iraqi army recruitment center in Baghdad, officials be like, know what I'm sayin'?
Swami is too much of a gent to put
Loose Canonthrough the Shizzolator.
Iraq and Al-Qaeda
So now it's official: there was
no link between Saddam and bin Laden in the 9/11 attacks. Many of us have known this for some time. Hans Blix has said this. George Bush has said this (but Dick Cheney doesn't listen--he still insists there's a connection).
Yesterday AOL ran a story about the Commission's findings. The headline: Iraq Not Tied to 9/11. To the side of the story was an AOL poll: "Do you think al-Qaeda had significant ties to Iraq?"
Set aside what the point of asking such a question was. (Was it a literacy test? A way of seeing if AOLers are terminally hard-of-thinking?) Stick with the results: As of the morning after, 54% of the 300,000 AOL members who responded--that's about 160,000 people--said YES.
Say what? Did they read the article? Watch the news? Hear the President?
Swami is riveted by a general human trait that seems to be magnified in America: the insistence on longheld belief, however discredited, over responsibly gathered, respectfully presented evidence.
For example: about 40-odd% of Americans believe the world was created in 6 days and Satan placed dinosaur bones on earth to make educated fools think the earth was created more than 5,000 or 6,000 years ago.
Were those, perhaps, the folks who said YES on that AOL poll?
Swami wishes that when AOL asks questions like these, it goes on to ask some related questions, just to see if there's an overlap when it comes to these facts-be-damned folks. Like: Was the world created just a few thousand years before Christ? Did God really make woman out of Adam's rib? Is homosexuality a "choice"?
Advertisement
Advertisement
|
About Beliefnet Our mission is to help people like you find, and walk, a spiritual path that will bring comfort, hope, clarity, strength, and happiness. More about Beliefnet. |
Help |
Media Kit |
Subscribe |
Legal Copyright © Beliefnet, Inc. and/or its licensors. All rights reserved. Use of this site is subject to Terms of Service and to our Privacy Policy. Constructed by Beliefnet. |
Advertisement
|
| beliefnet |
Comments
Add Comment »To comment on this content you must be a registered user:
Sign-Up or Log-In