Independence Day in America:):)...or why America and I need this Fourth of July:):):)...

It's funny that I'd be writing this while watching a really great Spanish film:):)...La Mala Educacio'n:):):):)...but maybe because it's so all-American to do so, too:):):)...

Gael Garcia' Bernal -- from Y Tu Mama Tambien -- is BRILLIANT in this movie:):):)...definitely recommend it:):):)...very impressive:):):)...

This weekend...I'm going to hang out with some old friends...if they're going to be around:):):)...it's a busy weekend:):)...but a four-day vacation from work that I plan on enjoying to the hilt:):):)...

Because...this year:):):)...

America needs the Fourth of July:):):)...America needs to celebrate it's independence:):):)...

Because God knows that noone else is going to do it for us:):):)...

I spend a lot of time engaging folks from abroad on matters of American culture and policy:):)...
And get to listen to all kinds of hateful and nasty things said about America:):):)...it's a pleasure, let me tell ya:):):)...

I read, this morning, as one friend rationalized the kidnapping and threats of death and harm to both the Americans kidnapped and their families Iranian students in 1979...could hardly believe it, really...

And I've read/listened to a lot of pretty ugly things said about America, lately...

A LOT of disgust with President Bush's international policy in international circles, these days...something more Americans should care about quite a bit more, I believe...

So...this Independence Day:):):)...

I'm looking forward to celebrating freedom in America:):):)...the most worthy thing to celebrate in America, now, I think:):):)...because it is so fundamental to everything else that matters in America and in the world, right now:):):)...and for as long as our often tragic, and more often heroic and decent little species inhabits this small planet, third from the Sun, in this little corner of our vast univere:):):)...

This will likely be THE BEST FOURTH OF JULY I've ever celebrated in America:):):)...I kinda wish I would have taken Harvey up on the offer to go to the Royals game this weekend:):):)...

Just so I could stand proudly...with my ball camp in hand and over my heart:):):)...and STARE AT THAT BEAUTIFUL FUCKIN' FLAG DEAD ON:):):)...

And sing AS PROUDLY I FUCKIN' AS COULD, this year:):):)...

"...O SAY THAT STAR SPANGLED BANNER YET WAVE...
O'ER THE LAND OF THE FREE...AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE"...

And then what would be more American than to hear the end of that song:):):)...and then to hear an announcer say, "Play ball":):):)...yeah...maybe I'll have to give ol' Harvey a call:):):)...

I love this fuckin' country:):):)...flaws and warts and failings and blunders and all:):):)...

I love this fuckin' country:):):)...

And...truth be told:):):)...

For all its faults:)...

It's homophobia...it's irrational drug and gun policies...it's fucked up and repressive attitudes towards sexuality and all kinds of stuff, really:):):)...it's bullshit schizophrenia about what it really wants...freedom or repression...democracy or dominance...humanity or brutality...

For all of America's BULLSHIT...of which there is MUCH:):):)...

I FUCKIN' LOVE THIS COUNTRY:):):):):)...I love this country through thick and fuckin' thin:):):)...through sickness and health:):):)...till death do us part:):):)...

I've thought, occassionally, about what it might be like to live somewhere else:):):)...

Like Britain:):)...or Italy:):)...or Canada:):)...or Germany:):)...or France:):)...or the Netherlands -- particularly Amsterdam:):):):):)...or Japan:):)...or Spain:):)...or Mexico:):):)...or a MILLION OTHER PLACES:):):)...

But the truth is:):):)...

That I fuckin' love the United States of America:):):)...I love this fuckin' country:):):)...

I love its freedom:):):)...I love that I can say whatever the fuck I want to say in this country:):):)...I love that -- within limits that are always expanding:):):) -- that I can do whatever the fuck I want in this country as a responsible and decent human being:):):)...and I love that this country is my one and only home:):):)...where I will spend the rest of my natural born life:):):)...

I want that freedom for the whole fuckin' world:):):)...and all the freedoms in places like Canada and Italy and Spain and Great Britain and Australia and France and Germany and Japan and the Netherlands and Mexico and Greece and Portugal and Sweden and Norway and Finland and Ireland and Austria and Switzerland and Costa Rica and Belize and and the Dominican Republic and Jamaica and American and Western Samoa and Fiji and Greenland and Iceland...

...and places like Israel and India and Hong Kong and South Korea and Brazil and Venezuela and Chile and Paraguay and Peru and Argentina and Guatemala and South Africa and Liberia and Kuwait and Turkey and Poland and Hungary and Bulgaria and Lithuania and Latvia and Estonia and Romania and the Czech Republic and Slovakia and Slovenia and the Phillipines...

...and like Russia and Georgia and Kyrgistan and Belarus and Lebanon and Taiwan and Singapore and Lesotho and Swaziland...and even places like Thailand and Pakistan and Bali and Nigeria and Egypt and Haiti and Kenya and Somalia and Myanmar and Armenia...

...and even freedoms in China and Vietnam and Cuba and Mozambique and North Korea and Syria and Iran and Lybia and Algeria...and Bosnia and Rwanda and Sudan and the Congo...

...and, of course, Iraq:)...where -- for all of the bungling of that little effort -- freedom is being celebrated more today than ever in that country's history...

This Fourth of July needs to be a LONG OVERDUE celebration of the virtues of freedom...in an America...and in a world...that has too often, lately, been celebrating its darker, more repressive bullshit and vices...

I LOVE THIS COUNTRY:):):)...and it's freedom:):):)...and freedom and democracy all over the world:):):)...

Happy Birthday, America:):):)...

Have a great Independence Day, everyone:):):)...

Play ball:):):)...

Love,
Ben

Dissappointing news in Iraq...

USA Today analysis indicates that pace of American troop deaths is rising...

USA Today's Rick Jervis reports that U.S. troop deaths increased one-third in the past 12 months...882 American troops died in the last 12 months of combat, versus 657 in the year previous...

It's actually pretty obvious conclusion from the graphics of the numbers from GlobalSecurity.org...

GlobalSecurity.org

The earlier analysis I did that indicated and hoped that the number of deaths may be decreasing post-election seems to giving way, now, to both a long term trend of more American and Iraqi and coalition force deaths...AND a shorter term upward trend, at this point, post-election...

...please check out the graphs on both links...

It's very sad, of course, that more troops are dying at this point in the war...

But even sadder to me is the recalcitrance of so many American conservatives in looking at the numbers and the chaos in Iraq...

The President, I hope, will reconsider matters as he looks at these numbers more carefully...

But too many conservatives I deal with these days are just stubborn in a way that is seriously disappointing to those wanting to prevent deaths of American soldiers and Iraqis...

I do wonder, at some point, how genuinely concerned they are for those whose lives are at risk...

And how concerned they are with the all too challenging and yet important task of reconsidering a course when it is not working out as planned...

The definition of insanity, the old saying goes, is to do the same thing over and over again and getting the same results...

In the President's case and in the case of too many recalictrant conservatives the situation is doing the same thing over and over again and getting a WORSE result...

What finally leads folks to reconsider a path that they've defended against all criticism, I wonder?...

And why, in the big picture, would you WANT defend a course of action against all criticism, I wonder?...

I mean...at this point -- aside from the intellectually honest assessments that need to be made of the situation in Iraq if we want to save lives, short term and long term -- it doesn't even make political sense for conservatives to do so...

Americans are growing increasingly skeptical of the war in majority numbers...even in famously more conservative North Carolina, where the President gave his recent Fort Bragg speech to rally support for the war...

The numbers of troops dying are increasing, over the long haul...

The insurgency in Afghanistan is resurging...

Anti-American attitudes -- even in allied countries -- are stronger...especially in places like Iran and North Korea, where the goal is to persuade them to give up their pursuit of belligerent nuclear ambitions...and where, in both countries, those ambitions are clearly INCREASING...

And a growing list of conservative thinkers, as well as intelligent liberals and international leaders, have been critical of the Administration's international policy...

But no matter how much the news gets worse on a whole range of indicators...and no matter what the warnings about the long term consequences of ignoring anti-American sentiments in much of the developed and developing world, especially in Arab Muslim nations whose states and/or peoples might support the efforts of groups like al Queda and the insurgents in Iraq...

Conservatives and George Bush just maintain their recalcitrance in the face of failure...

Why?...I have to ask myself...

At a certain point...it doesn't even benefit your self-interest...

So, why do it?...

Tentatively, I have a couple of hunches...

I think that it doesn't really have to do with self-interest so much as it does with having to do what some people find it hardest to do...

First, to give up their bitterness that so blinds them...

This is not something exclusive to conservatives, obviously...in fact, the calls for President Bush's impeachment and/or a war crimes tribunal are out of bitterness, too, I think...

And while I think we have much reason to be concerned about such bitterness amongst liberals when liberals are governing (current efforts to regulate the economy our bourne out of such bitterness, I think...and something that we have MUCH to fear from liberals, in the coming years)...liberals are not, largely, in power, right now...conservatives are...and, thus, the reason for my focus on conservatives, at this particular moment (though, don't worry...though I am a liberal...I've learned my lesson...liberals are guilty of this, too...and need to be critiqued and checked, as a consequence...God, I'm so glad I live in a democracy:):):):):):):)...

Bitterness blinds people making political judgments and judgments of all kinds, really:):):)...none of us are immune to it, obviously:):):)...but some of us -- independent of ideology, I'm learning:):):) -- deal with it better than others:)...and some of have a lot of work to do:):)...

The second hunch I have is that it is just too difficult for some folks to admit when they're wrong...

And I think that's because to admit that they might be wrong means to acknowledge that, perhaps, seriously thinking through such matters REALLY MATTERS...that it's not just a luxury of all those liberal academic elitists in universities...or all those elitist liberal journalists in the MSM (the Mainstream Media)...or all those liberal Democratic critics in Congress...

That thinking through these issues (and all things, really) matters to EVERYONE...

Including and especially the leader of the free world...

There are many very smart conservatives who still recalcitrantly support the Administration just staying the course...

And what they have in common with their less intelligent brethren in the conservative cause...

Is that they have the DAMNDEST TIME admitting when they're wrong...

It's a foolish kind of stubborness that I'm quite confident, at this point, looking at the poll numbers and their trends, will be duly humbled in the next national elections...

But MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the elections...

...is the consequences that such stubborness has on the lives lost -- American, Iraqi, and otherwise -- due to the inability of the same folks to square good intentions with disappointing realities...

I don't know anymore:):)...

There is one really important variable that I've been critical of, off and on, for last 2 or 3 years...
And that is the effort by liberals to PRESSURE the Administration and conservatives to rethink this effort...rather than just trying to PERSUADE them to do the same...

Those efforts to PRESSURE the Administration and world leaders were echoed by U2's Bono in the most recent Time interview with him about Live 8 efforts to end poverty and deal with the ravages of AIDS and disease in Africa and the developing world...

And those efforts have CLEARLY FAILED, I think, to any honest liberals considering the honest consequences of such efforts...

The President is DEFINITELY the most responsible party, here...he did sign up to be the most powerful leader in the world, after all...and he can be responsible for his own thoughts and actions...

But as with the relationship between the Administration and al Queda terrorists and insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan...where al Queda and insurgents are responsible for their own murderous ways...and the Administration is responsible for the larger issues of how its actions improve and make worse (and the various permutations of both) those same probabilities of behavior on the part of al Queda and other terrorist and insurgent groups...

Liberals are also responsible for how they deal with the Administration...

And if they're keeping track...

The Administration gets MORE RECALCITRANT the MORE THEY ARE PRESSURED...very much like Kim Jong Il in North Korea...and the Iranian leadership and its ambitions for nuclear capabilities...

I do everything I can to persuade liberals and other folks to lessen and end that pressure...

Sometimes successfully...sometimes unsuccessfully...

I'm sure there is much I can do to improve how I do this...

But, for now...

I'm just frustrated with all the stubbornness...all of the threats...all of the pressure...all of the efforts to scare the shit out of one another...

That just don't work...

If we'd all just take some time away from our own fears and frustrations long enough to look at it straight...and not just follow our fantasies of making the world do each of our bidding...

I think we'd see it more clearly...

Sometimes aggression is needed in the moment to deal with serious situations...sometimes it's just a reaction to a difficult reality...

But aggression cannot sustain long term relationships that nurture the kind of openness and exchange and interaction and honest engagement that nurture the kind of values and outcomes that we care about and that we say that we care about...

In our personal relationships...nor in our political relationships...

THE SAME DAY that Sandra Day O'Connor...one of the most DECENT justices in one of the most decent institutions in American politics...and my choice, totally on merit, for Chief Justice, had she not retired to care for her sick and possibly dying husband...

THAT SAME DAY...liberal and conservative groups announce that they will be, as Ala at Blonde Sagacity puts it, "Takin' it to the Mattresses!!!" over the nomination battle to appoint a justice in her stead...

Blonde Sagacity...

And at a certain point, I just wonder...

When will we all pull back from the brink?...

When will we figure out that this little political war is serving NOONE...not even those who are fighting it...or, presumably, the folks it is being fought for...

And certainly not all of the people who are dying -- Iraqis, Americans, Britons, Italians, Ukranians, Poles, Spaniards, Bulgarians, Slovaks, Estonians, Thai, Dutch, Danish, Hungarian, Latvian, Kazakh, Salvadoran...everyone -- in higher numbers than is necessary...

When do we all pull back from all this useless propagandizing and foolish political conflict and manipulation...

And just do the REALLY OBVIOUS THING?:):):)...

Just discuss it with one another...passionately, to be sure...but intelligently and with an honest concern with doing good and saving lives more than "being right" in the face of contrary realities...

I'm sure I've fucked this up along the way...

And it is MUCH HARDER to see when one is fucking up or not when "it is on," so to speak...and everything is interpreted with suspicion and fear...

Which is EXACTLY THE POINT, really...

That all the suspicion and fear INTERFERE with efforts to persuade...which, ultimately, are THE ONLY EFFORTS THAT REALLY WORK...

Will the President and conservatives and liberals and Democratic and liberal leaders and leaders in Iran and North Korea and the terrorists and insurgents in Iraq and among al Queda -- the last two groups being the LEAST LIKELY to step back from aggressive efforts once engaged -- step back from the persistent brinksmanship?...

I sure hope so...

I do have some unexplainable faith in the political center...in the ultimate decency of humanity and Americans and decent peoples everywhere...

But, MAN, if it's not showing up in all too many friends and folks, generally, these days, who say that they care more about doing good than politically cynical efforts to win political points...who criticize politicians, rightly, for similar political cynicism...

Given the cynicism of Newt Gingrich's effort to win power in 1994...and of the efforts to impeach Bill Clinton in 1999...

I do have to wonder if the cynicism...of politics...and, consequently, about the lives that politics, at some level, is designed to improve...

...if it's gotten worse...or if we've gotten better...

It does seem to me that it's gotten worse...

...among conservatives and liberals...

And I have to wonder if folks ever do take a step back from that and wonder to themselves...

"Why do I care about this, again?"...

I think it'd be a good question for a lot of people to ask themselves, these days...

Love,
Ben