Thought for the Week

I'm feel like I'm exercising my right of free speech, which is what our boys are fighting for the Iraqi people to have, and I think if we take it away from the people here in the United States then we're taking a step really in the wrong direction...We all don't have to believe in what our President believes to be patriotic...This talk about a 9/11 mentality. No one, George Bush or anyone else, owns the 9/11 mentality. It belongs to the United States of America. It belongs to everyone who was sitting there with their family, watching those buildings get hit by those jets. It belongs to George Bush and his family, it belongs to John Kerry and his family, it belongs to me and my family, my American family. So, I have a post 9/11 mentality, it’s just not the same as George Bush’s.
--- Neil Young, talking about his upcoming CD, Living with War.

Australia: Who knew it was so cool?

From the Sydney Morning Herald:
Sydney is a long way from Washington, D.C., but, even at this distance, it is clear that the Bush Administration is falling to pieces.
In recent weeks, scanning the political coverage in the mainstream US media and sampling the blogs has been to watch a flood tide ebbing to reveal a rotting, skeletal hulk. It is the George W. Bush ship of fools, stuck in the mud for the world to see in all its mendacity, its incompetence, its faith-based stupidity.
It is possible, at this late stage, that even Bush himself has begun to realise something is wrong. That oddly simian face is ashen, the eyes leaden. The voice is shrill and its tone defensive.
"I'm the decider and I decide what's best," he squawked to reporters in the White House rose garden the other day, as the screws turned tighter on his disastrous Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. Can you imagine Roosevelt, Eisenhower or Kennedy blurting something like that?

It gets worse. For Bush. But it's refreshing for anyone else to read a piece that is this blunt.

What Can You Do? Save Just One

As we get closer to what looks like the certain bombing of Iran, I'm getting more letters asking if there is any way we can stop Bush's second mad military adventure.

My answer is: No. Bush and his cronies crave a giant "legacy." They have waited a long time to reconfigure the Middle East. Time is slipping away. They have 1,000 days left. Invade they must.

Would it help if we took to the streets? Walked out of schools? You never know. But my brother and my niece were at Stanford last week when protestors awaited the Bush motorcade. It changed its route so the President wouldn't even have to see people who opposed his policies. And the vans and SUVs at the rear of the motorcade were bristling with guns. In case of what? A shouted slogan? A sign. Only El Presidente of a banana republic needs this kind of security. Or an Eastern European dictator.

So what can you do? As I was musing, I read two dispatches.

One was from Brussels, where 80,000 people marched to honor a 17-year-old kid who was killed for his MP3 player. This was what caught my attention:

They didn't carry banners or any sign of political affiliation, at the request of the family of the victim, whose murder has deeply shocked Belgium.
The silence was broken only by the murmur of the crowd and applause that broke out when the victim's family was spotted at the heart of the procession.

And I thought: One life still matters in Belgium.

Then I went on to the sports section of The New York Times and read about Rob Thomas, a black basketball star who was sent to a Connecticut prep school for seasoning. In his first week, he wrote "in looping printed letters, which looked like the handwriting of a young girl, a one-page cry for help: "I cannot read or write. I need all you people's help. Please do not turn your back on me."

I urge you to click and read every word. You'll get a good cry out of it, which is a fine thing in and of itself. But maybe you'll also get an idea: SAVE ONE PERSON.

That's right. You may not be able to save millions of Iranians. You may not be able to stop the next terrorist attack. But you can support a foreign kid who lacks everything. You can "adopt" an American kid who, like Rob Thomas, was mostly living in subways. You can change one life for the better.

On commercial planes, when they do the safety drill, they do a little speech about the oxygen masks. First, they say, put on your own. Then help your kid. That feels counter-intuitive. But it's common sense. First, save yourself. Then, one other. And maybe--just maybe--these acts of kindness will balance out the horror that our government does in our name.

'I'm the decider' terrifies me. How scared are you?

"I'm the decider." Dear Lord, Little Uptown, at age 4, speaks better than the President. Does Bush not sound like a petulant elementary school kid asserting himself on the playground?

The problem is, the playground is the planet. And the petulant child is in charge. And the "shake-up" in his staff doesn't mean the entrance of a savior--that is, anyone who will pop the bubble of illusion and introduce the White House to reality.

I write today because many Americans--by the polls, most Americans--finally live in reality. And they are asking, as several readers have e-mailed me to ask: What can we do to stop the President from going to war with Iran?

I have read. Prayed for guidance. Nothing works. I can't find a lever I can use to stop a war that a dozen crazy, stupid men seem to insist is necessary.

Tony Blair has apparently sent signals that England won't even be part of the diplomatic process this time--he seems to grasp that's just a comedy routine we enact before we get down to the bombing that was always our intent. In the New York Times today, Thomas Friedman writes that he would prefer a world in which Iran has the bomb to a war "carried out and sold to the world by the Bush national security team, with Don Rumsfeld at the Pentagon's helm."

Tony Blair. Tom Friedman. If Jesus appeared on TV to condemn Bush, it wouldn't matter. The President and his cronies hear nothing, see nothing, learn nothing. They're making history. The wind is in their faces. They feel brave. And that--how they feel--is all that matters.

And the rest of us? As I go about my daily life--which is, ironically, progressing blissfully well (knock wood) --- I look at my interactions as if they're happening in a dream. Here I am at the gym, pumping iron. Pitching my services to a media company. Writing here, now. And the clock is ticking down to a zero-hour known only to men who will carry out the orders of "the decider."

Yes, you want to scream. But to what end? Society is a covenant of manners. It's amazing enough that we go through our days pretending we'll never die. Now we have to pretend that our "surgical" nukes will kill only a few people (in fact, they can result in huge casualties). And that the second war we start won't mean retaliation that reaches our cities, our loved ones, us.

I've been compulsively playing 'The Animal Years,' the great new CD by Josh Ritter. Last night, listening to a song called "Girl in the War," the penny dropped--it's about a guy whose girlfriend is fighting in Iraq. Some telling lyrics:

the only thing I know to do/Is turn up the music and pray that she makes it through/

And that reminds me of "Franny and Zooey," by J.D. Salinger, a classic that's now ignored but was gobbled up by readers when it was published in 1961. "Zooey" ends with a phone call to Franny, the youngest of the Glass sisters, from Zooey, the youngest brother. As the conversation winds down, Zooey recalls something that happened decades ago, soon after he started doing a radio show called "It's a Wise Child" with his siblings: He got a lecture from his brother Seymour:

Seymour'd told me to shine my shoes just as I was going out the door with Walker. I was furious. The studio audience were all morons, the announcer was a moron, the sponsors were morons, and I just damn well wasn't going to shine my shoes for them, I told Seymour. I said they couldn't see them anyway, where we sat. He said to shine them anyway. He said to shine them for the Fat Lady. I didn't know what the hell he was talking about, but he had a very Seymour look on his face, and so I did it. He never did tell me who the Fat Lady was, but I shined my shoes for the Fat Lady every time I ever went on the air again—all the years you and I were on the program together, if you remember. I don't think I missed more than just a couple of times. This terribly clear, clear picture of the Fat Lady formed in my mind. I had her sitting on this porch all day, swatting flies, with her radio going full-blast from morning till night. I figured the heat was terrible, and she probably had cancer, and—I don't know. Anyway, it seemed goddam clear why Seymour wanted me to shine my shoes when I went on the air. It made sense.

Same conclusion as Josh Ritter. Shine your shoes. Turn up the music so you're in a better mood. Does it make a difference? Probably not. But courage just might consist of getting it right nonetheless. You think?

Thought for the Week

In Scripture, there is no purely spiritual answer to slavery; no purely spiritual answer to the pain of the poor. . . . In times of oppression, if you don't translate choices of faith into political choices, you run the danger of washing your hands, like Pilate.

--William Sloane Coffin, the activist minister who was once a firebrand at Yale and who died, alas, last week

Are we Already at War with Iran?

I came here, almost two years ago, thinking that the war in Iraq would soon end, and I could return to my regularly scheduled programming--figuring out how to lead a spiritually enriching, decent life in a relentlessly worldly society. Those who have been with me over the long haul know how wrong I was. And how little "spiritual" stuff has appeared on this blog.

On the other hand, as the late, great William Sloane Coffin pointed out, sometimes spirituality has to roll up its sleeves and do the dirty work. I have loathed doing that--indeed, it's why I only write here once a week. I just don't have the stomach to watch, close-up, as the Bush administration destroys our credibility, wrecks our economy, endangers our planet and--almost as an afterthought--turns up the heat on Middle East issues.

Now, just when you thought it couldn't get worse, here we are--days or months away from confrontation with Iran. Or, depending on your source, already moving against Iran.

That would explain one thing: the spate of retired generals speaking out against Rumsfeld's management of the Iraq war. Too late, you say. Just so. But maybe they're trying to unseat Rumsfeld before he can start the next war.

In any event, a primer follows. All the bad news in one place. From an e-mail going around:

This entire crisis has been manufactured, and has been years in the making. Stop and think back five years. What did we have five years ago? A moderate reformist Iranian government making overtures to the United States, rebuilding its relationship with Europe, liberalizing its society, and modernizing its economy.

9/11 comes along, the Iranians are overflowing with sympathy. Mass candlelit vigils are held in Tehran. Iran offers aid and cooperation.

Iran hates the Taliban who have executed Iranian diplomats and massacred Afghan Shiites. Iran hates Saddam Hussein. Iran hates Al Qaeda which is a Sunni Fundamentalist organization which declares Shiites infidels and subhuman. Iran shares its intelligence with America--they even arrested Taliban members and handed them over to US custody.

So we've got the Iranian spring; things are finally going to sort out. And what happens? The Bush administration rebuffs every Iranian overture and does its best to instigate a cold war. Afghanistan is invaded, and suddenly, the Iranians are looking at American troops and allies on their eastern border. Then Iraq is invaded, and American troops and allies on their western border. Then bases and treaties in Uzbekistan, and whoops, there's more American troops and allies on the northern border. The Persian Gulf is filled with American warships and carrier fleets.

Now the Iranians are surrounded. And the tough talk is constant. Iran is part of the 'Axis of Evil' and Americans tell each other "Baghdad, humph, real men go to Tehran." Essentially, America has been threatening military action against Iran for the last five years, and has surrounded the country on every side with troops, bases and allies. American aircraft invade Iranian airspace regularly, American special forces undertake operations inside Iran and Americans regularly accuse Iranians of interference in Iraq. Dick Cheney pontificates about Israel bombing Iran after he has just handed over to Israel the long range bombers and bunker busting bombs required to do the job.

Meanwhile, the United States undertakes economic warfare against Iran, interfering with its business dealings with third party countries, trying to scuttle a pipeline deal with India, and it goes on and on. The hysteria about the Iranians nuclear program is just more of the same.

Now how in God's Bloody Name do you think the Iranians are going to respond to that. Should they concede the nuclear program, abandon their pipeline project? If so, its not going to do them any good. America will just seek more concessions. Each surrender will be met by new demands. This isn't hard to figure out. It's exactly what Bush did with Iraq.

Iran's nuclear facilities are distributed across the country and in hardened sites near population centers. So any strike that cripples a significant portion of Iran's nuclear capacity will inevitably be so large and kill so many people that its going to be tantamount to inviting full scale war. Think about that. Iran is 70 million people, an area five times the size of Iraq, not disemboweled by 12 years of sanctions and air raids.

And you thought we were, somehow, the good guys. After five years of George Bush? Well, we all can dream. But now let's cut to the bottom-line reality--the right answer, from the never unreliable James Fallows of the Atlantic Monthly:

The central flaw of American foreign policy these last few years has been the triumph of hope, wishful thinking, and self-delusion over realism and practicality. Realism about Iran starts with throwing out any plans to bomb.

But, you say, hoping against hope, if we go to war with Iran, it will be a narrow, intensely focused war. No troops will be involved. We'll bomb surgically with nuclear "bunker buster" bombs.

Sadly, that is probably the worst approach. Look at this Union of Concerned Scientists animation.

Yikes, you say. This is nuts. Surely Bush is not crazy enough to fight a second war again. Not so. According to Glenn Greenwald, our President is just that mad:

I've read in many places that Bush will be hard-pressed to commit to an attack on Iran if his popularity remains so low and there is not broad popular support for the attack, but the opposite could quite easily be true as well. I think that's the more likely relationship between his popularity and the probability of an attack--the more unpopular he is, the more likely is an attack.

The weaker and more stigmatized Bush becomes, the greater could be the likelihood of some spiteful, bitter, strength-seeking military offensive. Few things seem more unstable and dangerous than an isolated, unpopular, bitter, failed, frustrated President, sitting in the White House recalling the glory days when war and military might caused him to feel so good and strong.

But it gets even worse. Remember Scott Ritter, a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, 1991-1998? He weighs in with gloomy tidings:

The reality is that the U.S. war with Iran has already begun. As we speak, American overflights of Iranian soil are taking place, using pilotless drones and other, more sophisticated capabilities.

The violation of a sovereign nation's airspace is an act of war in and of itself. But the war with Iran has gone far beyond the intelligence-gathering phase.

President Bush has taken advantage of the sweeping powers granted to him in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, to wage a global war against terror and to initiate several covert offensive operations inside Iran.

The most visible of these is the CIA-backed actions recently undertaken by the Mujahadeen el-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group, once run by Saddam Hussein's dreaded intelligence services, but now working exclusively for the CIA's Directorate of Operations.

It is bitter irony that the CIA is using a group still labeled as a terrorist organization, a group trained in the art of explosive assassination by the same intelligence units of the former regime of Saddam Hussein, who are slaughtering American soldiers in Iraq today, to carry out remote bombings in Iran of the sort that the Bush administration condemns on a daily basis inside Iraq.

There's nothing I can do to stop this? At least the passengers on United Flight 93 got to fight the terrorists on 9/11--but what can we do? Especially if the decision for war has already been made? All this makes me feel....dislocated. How about you?

A Death in the Bronx

The New York Times has the story:

They were driving through the Bronx on Easter Sunday. Their two-year-old son, wearing his Sunday best, was strapped in his car seat. They heard a sound. Looked at the kid. He was leaking blood.

David Pacheco, Jr., died before he reached the hospital, killed by a random bullet fired by some hothead gang member.

He didn't have to die. Most of the people who are shot don't have to die. All it takes is a little common sense--and more political courage than the National Rifle Association allows American politicians.

First, you criminalize possession of all guns that cannot be used for hunting. Then you de-criminalize drugs.

What do you gain?

On the government side, you save billions of dollars that are being wasted on a "drug war" that can never be won. There's less money needed for jails. Less corruption.

On the criminal side, legalized drugs means there's nothing for gangs to do. Those suckers are going to have to get into hard-core crime--which is much easier to stop and punish--or work for a living. (You don't like illegal immigrants? Here's a work force that's home grown.) And, with legalization, the "cool" factor is stripped from the drug culture. There would be--warning: paradox ahead--less drug use.

Gang members who clean up. Kids who don't have a rap sheet record for smoking pot. Cops fighting real crime. Little kids growing up safe.

Sorry. I must have been on something.

Christian Porn

You think: Oh, an oxymoron. Christian Porn. Like jumbo shrimp. Spare change. Free time.

But it's a real web site: XXXChurch.com.

Its mission: helping you fight those prurient urges. But don't let me get in their way of the pitch:

The entire reason for having this website is to give people hope and to let them know that there is help.
Right now it comes down to a conscious decision to do something about it. We know it's easy to simply click away and view porn sites. It's free...it's accessible...and everybody is doing it!! You can decide today to get honest about your life and where all this is heading.

Yeah, but how do you defeat the urge? You use Free X3watch Accountability Software:

Here is how X3watch works. Let's say you're browsing the Internet and you're looking at porn. The software makes a log of the porno site and then every two or four weeks your two designated accountability partners will get an email listing all the skin sites you've been on. Oh, no--busted! Now that's what we call real accountability. No more secrets!

Great idea. And I hereby volunteer to be your accountability partner. Especially if you're female, over 30, and....oops, the saltpeter seems to be wearing off.

The Beauty Part

Someone who has seen this movie a lot--and there are quite a few people who have seen it more than a hundred times--says it's a retelling of the Buddha's story.

You see, Jeff Bridges has a gut in this movie, and so did the Buddha. Bridges bowls, which is nothing but a stab at perfection. He has a carpet stolen, which is the lesson about material objects. And Bridges is known to one and all as "The Dude," which rhymes with....

I'll stop there, you get the idea: For those who love it, this is one deep movie. And they're not entirely goofy on this point. It's just like the Coen brothers to hide a spiritual classic inside a stoner comedy--after all, wasn't "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" their retelling of Homer's "Odyssey"? But, really....The Big Lebowski?

Thought for the Week

I said a little prayer before I actually did the fingerprint thing, and the picture. My prayer was basically: 'Let people see Christ through me. And let me smile.'

--Tom DeLay, channeling God even as he was being indicted

'Wake Up, Buddha'

We have a statue of the Buddha on a low table. Little Uptown, now 4, sees Buddha as a playmate--an inanimate friend, a metal doll. She puts the copper meditation bowl over Buddha's head like a helmet, wraps necklaces around the statue, sets her dolls down to rest on small pillows.

Over the weekend, she loaded the table with dolls--so many that several had to sleep on Buddha's lap.

Then she put her face right up to the Buddha and shouted, "Wake up!"

There's a first time for everything; I bet that was a first for the Buddha. And I'm sure of one thing: Buddha laughed.

Will the Christian Right Destroy America?

In 1969, Kevin Phillips wrote a book called "The Emerging Republican Majority." He knew his subject well--he had been chief elections and voting patterns analyst for the 1968 Nixon campaign and may well be the father of the Republicans' "Southern strategy."

Guilt and wisdom got the better of him. For the last decade, Phillips has chronicled how the Republican Party is leading us toward doom. In his new book, "American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century," Phillips turns bluntly apocalyptic. Terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, tyranny, democracy--these are the words that George Bush and his colleagues use to throw us off the scent of their real mission: theocracy at home, an oil empire abroad, the flag of Christ flying everywhere.

Hello, theology. Goodbye, rationality. Such a choice is only made by arrogant leaders who don't have a real idea and don't want one. No surprise, then, that they ally themselves with the wingnut strain of Christianity, which prizes faith and has the quaint belief that Adam and Eve frolicked with the dinosaurs.

Phillips offers a point of view very familiar to readers of Swami Uptown. And he has taken the time to drill down to the factual level--his book is not only cogently argued, it's densely reported. Which makes it scary as hell.

But just because it's credible doesn't mean it's true. Or rather, that it has to be true. I have nothing to base my optimism on, but I believe we will avoid the End of Empire scenario Phillips predicts.

It's not that we deserve to survive. Rather, it's the wisdom of my old Latin teacher: "Even an idiot learns after seven repetitions." Which is to say: I think pretty much everyone grasps that George Bush really is an End Times guy. That it wouldn't freak him out to be Raptured. That, in a political pinch, he's going to pray--and then bomb Iran.

But bad times call for untried solutions. I believe, at some soon point, that Democrats will find some spine--or, like Joe Lieberman, face primary challenges from my kind of candidate so intense they say, "Well, if I'm not nominated by my party, I just might run as an Independent." Or that some tipping point will be reached, and Bush will stand before us, not as the terrifying Wizard of Oz, but as pathetic Dr. Marvel, from the traveling medicine show. And that he will babble and froth, and the entire country will--as you do when you see a drunk you know staggering toward you--take care to sidestep him.

But it doesn't have to end well. Which leads us to....

Are we going to war with Iran?

Seymour Hersh, writing in The New Yorker, has everyone in a tizzy--it looks as if the White House would be quite willing to bomb Iran, possibly with tactical nukes, in order to stop that country's atomic plans.

I've just returned from a town meeting with Congressman John Murtha--you remember: the much-decorated Marine veteran who wants us to pull our soldiers out of Iraq yesterday. Murtha was quite confident that there will be no war with Iran. "Iran is three times bigger than Iraq," he said. "It has a population that has a fanatic hatred of the U.S. Surgical nuclear strikes? Our intelligence is so bad in Iraq, who the hell believes it will be better in Iran?"

For his part, President Bush has also poo-poohed a military approach to the Iran problem. Which means nothing. As others have noted, it is very important--no, crucial--to his presidency that Democrats do not retake control of Congress. Should that happen, there will be investigations galore. Censure is possible. So is impeachment.

But would Bush invade a country--start a war--for personal gain? Well, he did it once. And now that he's hunkered in the bunker, he shows no signs of admitting he was wrong about anything. And then there's the issue of his legacy. What will it be--a failed war in Iraq? Or, just maybe, a late-inning victory in Iraq?

However it plays out, it's clear that enough people in the Pentagon are sufficiently worried that they talked to Sy Hersh. Who then wrote:

The word I hear is messianic. He thinks, as I wrote, that he's the only one now who will have the courage to do it. He's politically free. I don't think he's overwhelmingly concerned about the '06 elections, congressional elections. I think he really thinks he has a chance, and this is going to be his mission.

If that's the case, I have only one suggestion: Pray. And hope that your God is more powerful that whatever deity has put these crazy ideas in this silly little man with the undeservedly high opinion of himself.

Josh Ritter

The new CD, The Animal Years, is out this week. Some of the songs nail the apocalyptic spirit of the times with more flair than a Kevin Phillips ever could. This is a stanza from 'Thin Blue Flame,' a nine-minute rant:

I woke beneath the clear blue sky
Sun it shouts the breeze aside
The old home town and the streets I knew
Wrapped up in a royal blue
I heard my friends laughing out across the fields
Girls in the gloamin' and the birds in the wheel
The raw smell of horses and the warm smell of hay
Cicadas electric in the heat of the day
A run of three sisters in the flush of the land
The lake was a diamond in the valley's hand
The straight of the highway in the scattered out hearts
They were coming together they were pulling apart
And angels everywhere were in my midst
The ones that I loved and the ones that I kissed
I wondered what it was I'd been looking for above
Heaven's so big there aren't no need to look up
So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air
Only a full house gonna have a prayer

Liar of the Millennium: O.J. Bush

Let's keep the facts--as we know them now--firmly in mind. President Bush "declassified" information selectively not so he could share it with "the American people," but so it could be given to New York Times reporter Judy Miller, a virtual stenographer who was friendly to the Administration. She would then use it to discredit the charges of Joe Wilson. Bush would be re-elected. All would be bliss.

Nixon meant the opposite of what he said. With Bush, words mean nothing. They're just....words. He's not against telling the truth, it's just that the truth doesn't matter. Only his cause matters. And because his cause is noble, because his enemies are satanic traitors, the lies are of no consequence.

Think of him as O.J. Simpson. Remember the reward O.J. offered? He really wanted to find the real killer. Well, like O.J., the President has been searching in vain for the real leaker within his administration--who turns out to be someone he sees in the mirror each morning.

Crazy, yes.. So who will be indicted? Oddly, no one probably will tumble for this. But still, the chronology is kind of fun.

President Bush, 9/30/03:
"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."

President Bush, 9/30/03:
"If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of. . . . I have told our administration, people in my administration to be fully cooperative. I want to know the truth. If anybody has got any information inside our administration or outside our administration, it would be helpful if they came forward with the information so we can find out whether or not these allegations are true and get on about the business."

President Bush, 10/28/03:
"I'd like to know if somebody in my White House did leak sensitive information."

President Bush, 6/10/04:
Reporter: "Do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?"
President Bush: "Yes. And that's up to the U.S. Attorney to find the facts."

President Bush, 10/28/03:
"I want to know the truth. ... I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is, partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do a very good job of protecting the leakers."

President Bush, 7/18/05 issue of USA Today: "If someone committed crime, they will no longer work in my administration."

White House Press Secretary, 9/29/03:
"The President has set high standards, the highest of standards for people in his administration. He's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration."

White House Press Secretary, 10/7/03:
"Let me answer what the President has said. I speak for the President and I'll talk to you about what he wants . . .If someone leaked classified information, the President wants to know. If someone in this administration leaked classified information, they will no longer be a part of this administration, because that's not the way this White House operates, that's not the way this President expects people in his administration to conduct their business."

Sexual Predators and Government Officials

Some weeks ago, I wrote about the sexual tensions of extremely moralistic men--especially those in government who see themselves as preachers. A few message board posters, apparently unfamiliar with patterns of pathology, were shocked at the suggestion that these guy might have a dark, sick fascination with sex. Well, that's understating--they thought I was way over the line.

Yeah? Then what's this: Four government officials arrested for child pornography. And one of them was in charge of prosecuting these cases. How does that happen? Do they think they'll never been caught? Or do they want to be caught?

Bill Maher had a point: A guy in Homeland Security picks up "a 14-year-old-girl" on the Internet and offers to show her his badge if she show him her..... Jeez, I say: Let the Arabs guard the ports!

J. Irwin Miller

A concert at Yale was cause enough for a friend to write about the late J. Irwin Miller, first lay president of the National Council of Churches. Miller was the CEO of Cummins Engine Co. in Columbus, Ohio, but he was much, more than a gifted businessman--in the 1960s, he led mainline Protestant churches in the campaign for racial justice. Among his finest hours: He took the CEO of AT&T with him to meet with John F. Kennedy days after Birmingham's police used fire hoses and police dogs against African-American students.Later, he brokered the peaceful abolition of segregation practices in 68 percent of Southern and Border-State cities and towns. Said Attorney General Robert Kennedy: "Six more like him, and we'd be a great nation."

I remember, during Vietnam, a group called Business Executives for Peace. And as I thought about Miller, I wondered: Why are no CEOs speaking out now? Where are the new J. Irwin Millers?

The Beauty Part

In an ugly moment, here's a piece of music that can heal and inspire. And a story that--on a more worldly plane--will dazzle friends, co-workers, even employers, this Easter week (and beyond).

In 1770, when he was just 14 years old, Mozart and his father came to Rome for Holy Week. St. Peter's and the Sistine Chapel were obvious destinations. On Wednesday, Mozart heard Allegri's "Miserere," a piece so exquisite that one of the 17th-century popes decided it should be played only on Wednesday and Good Friday of Holy Week, and only in the Sistine Chapel.

No one dared to copy it--the penalty was excommunication.

That night, from memory, Mozart transcribed it. On Friday, he brought his copy--hidden in his hat --to the second performance and checked it for accuracy. He had, he discovered, made just two mistakes. No copy of the Mozart transcription exists. It's said he handed it off, whereupon it was copied again--and his version was then destroyed.

Lovely story. And a great endorsement of the music. Click for more on the "Miserere."

Thought for the Week

Like all weak men, he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind.
--W. Somerset Maugham, "Of Human Bondage"

Slandering Jill Carroll

To the surprise of no one who knows anything, Jill Carroll slammed the United States on a videotape before her Iraqi captors released her. From The New York Times:

In a videotape posted Thursday on the Internet, made before her release, Ms. Carroll denounced the American presence in Iraq and praised the insurgents fighting here. In the video, Ms. Carroll smiled, laughed once and gestured in a seemingly relaxed manner, saying she felt guilty about being released while so many Iraqis were still suffering.

Ms. Carroll, apparently knowing she would be released, denounced what she described as the "lies" told by the American government and predicted that the insurgents would defeat the Americans in Iraq. "I feel guilty. I also feel that it just shows that the mujahedeen are good people fighting an honorable fight, a good fight. While the Americans are here, the occupying forces, you know, treating the people in a very, very bad way. So I can't be happy totally for my freedom because there are people still suffering in prisons, in very difficult situations."

Later--after she was homeward bound--she corrected herself, explaining that a gun had been pointed at her during the making of that tape. Which, as I say, which obvious. But not to the right wing pundits who are so brave about sending other people's kids to fight and die. In the days between the first news reports and Jill Carroll's explanation, the right crucified her....starting with the Iraqi headgear she was wearing when she was released.

Simple question: Would Bill O'Reilly have refused to make that tape? Rush? Hannity? You?

Really? You would have said, 'I'd rather die.' Of course you would have. And so would Bill, Rush, and Sean, I'm sure.

John and Jerry, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g

Here's the Senator on Meet the Press:
RUSSERT: Do you believe that Jerry Falwell is still an agent of intolerance?

McCAIN: No, I don’t. I think that Jerry Falwell can explain how his views on this program when you have him on.

Well, there you have it. If you were still thinking of McCain as the "maverick" senator who out-toughed the Vietcong during years of imprisonment during the Vietnam War, you now know just how tough he is--a whole lot less than evangelist Jerry Falwell. He'll be giving the graduation address at Falwell's college; he's giving the righty reverend a wet kiss in advance.

McCain, like Giuliani, is going around the country, sucking up to the evangelical right. The church crowd likes the attention. It doesn't seem to mind that Guiliani's on marriage #3 and that he had hot-and-cold running girlfriends during his tenure as New York's least loved mayor in decades--he became The Man on 9/11. And that's that--for a lot of these folks, if a zealot picks up a bullhorn, they're in love.

McCain, for his part, gets lots of mileage as a man of principle. But when you look at his voting record, he find what the principle is--he's one of the most conservative senators. Consistently. Look at his voting record (scroll down to 'Conservastive'):

Fall 2004: Senator McCain supported the interests of the John Birch Society 90 percent in Fall 2004.
2005: Senator McCain supported the interests of the Republican Liberty Caucus on personal liberties 84 percent in 2005.
2004: Senator McCain supported the interests of the Christian Coalition 83 percent in 2004.

McCain likes to go on talk shows and play the thoughtful moderate, and the moderators are such wimps they let him get away with it. But he's a hard-liner. Abortion only if you're raped. Win in Iraq. Simple positions, easily digested by the red meat crowd.

McCain will move even further to the right as time goes on--unless, I would imagine, he suddenly wakes up and realizes that positioning yourself as a logical successor to George Bush is a loser of an idea. In which case, he'll will move toward the center. But only the center of the far right. It wouldn't do, after all, to speak for most of the citizenry when you're the willing pawn of the church-and-flag crowd.

Why we need to go to war with Iran

Because we had no interest in any other way to deal with Iran. From the Asia Times:
The George W. Bush administration failed to enter into negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program in May 2003 because neo-conservatives who advocated destabilization and regime change were able to block any serious diplomatic engagement with Tehran, according to former administration officials.
The same neo-conservative veto power also prevented the administration from adopting any official policy statement on Iran, those same officials said.

Don't take your gun to town, son, but take your gun to work

Sitting down? The Christian Science Monitor reports that Oklahoma and Kentucky have passed laws that require employers to allow guns–even assault weapons–in the workplace.

But don't you dare take a drink of whiskey in a bar in Texas

From NBC News (Dallas/Ft. Worth):

TABC agents and Irving police swept through 36 Irving bars and arrested about 30 people on charges of public intoxication. Agency representatives say the move came as a proactive measure to curtail drunken driving.

At one location, for example, agents and police arrested patrons of a hotel bar. Some of the suspects said they were registered at the hotel and had no intention of driving. Arresting authorities said the patrons were a danger to themselves and others.

"Going to a bar is not an opportunity to go get drunk," TABC Capt. David Alexander said. "It's to have a good time but not to get drunk."

I ask again: Why do these people hate freedom?

The Beauty Part

Dad brings home a Lego set. Ian, 6, and his 9 year-old sister Rachel, set to work building spaceships. She's fast and efficient. He fumbles and fails. And he angrily throws the Lego pieces at his sister. "I'm a dumbo," Ian says. "I can't do anything right."

Not surprisingly, Dad wants Ian to feel better.He tells Ian that his incomplete rocket is terrific, that he's "the best rocket maker around," that Ian can grow up to do "whatever you set your mind to." And to make Ian feel better, Dad takes the Lego pieces and builds a rocket for his son.

What three things did Dad do wrong? If you can't reel them off, you really ought to read more about The Optimistic Child: A Proven Program to Safeguard Children from Depression & Build Lifelong Resilience.