My too often nonsensical and forever unenlightened reflections on people and life and everything else I understand as well as I understand everything else. Not well at all, in other words. Love thy neighbor, is my motto. Unless something better comes along. Make sure to say so when you find it.
If you take a step back from most politics, today. In America and all over the world. The clearer it becomes. Living and dying by the sword, and such.
And I think the one thing that most disappoints me, most, today, with the ugliness and mean-spiritedness that has taken the world by storm. And left a wake of reaping from all that sowing.
Is that our pride is, often, so strong that we would rather die by that sword than just choose another.
Some people, that is.
Most people just don't know what to do to make it better, is the truth.
And everyone is afraid that if they were to lay down their sword, then only destruction is in store for them.
And so the justifications for the whole dance of insanity goes.
Why any of us would invest ourselves in this mess of politics and power like it has more honesty to it than it does, I will never know.
Perhaps we shouldn't.
Perhaps that's the most important lesson of all from politics. And power. How rarely, if that, it makes us better.
Which is exactly why fiscal and economic policy, like individual investments, should be based on their merits and not on the propaganda.
The stimulus and Keynesian economics failed. They were a well-meaning effort to jumpstart the economy and to help people by funding programs that are government sponsored. But it failed. And will continue to fail until we deal with the underlying issues of what government can be trusted to care for more effectively and what matters need to be addressed by peoples' free consciences.
And that will not get unravelled until we choose better policies. Namely ones that affirm more genuinely liberal commitments. And more genuinely liberal economics. And freedom, more broadly.
And if you don't believe that. Keep at it. And keep living with the consequences.
Because the most awesome and undeniable fact of bullshit as policy is that it keeps dragging everyone down until we face up.
And no amount of spin and propaganda will ever be able to make that go away. Ever. No matter how much we cry otherwise.
The chickens are coming home to roost. But someone needs to tell Malcolm that radical isn't on the menu tonight.
Who's to say What's impossible Well they forgot This world keeps spinning And with each new day I can feel a change in everything And as the surface breaks reflections fade But in some ways they remain the same And as my mind begins to spread its wings There's no stopping curiosity
I want to turn the whole thing upside down I'll find the things they say just can't be found I'll share this love I find with everyone We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs I don't want this feeling to go away
Who's to say I can't do everything Well I can try And as I roll along I begin to find Things aren't always just what they seem
I want to turn the whole thing upside down I'll find the things they say just can't be found I'll share this love I find with everyone We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs This world keeps spinning and there's no time to waste Well it all keeps spinning spinning round and round and
Upside down Who's to say what's impossible and can't be found I don't want this feeling to go away
Please don't go away Please don't go away Please don't go away Is this how it's supposed to be Is this how it's supposed to be
A very nice description of the suckerpunch that Stan McChrystal just took. I say let 'em lose the war, Stan. Let all those people die and those Afghanis be reenslaved by those Islamist thugs.
And when Democrats and the press say that it was unwinnable, or it was Bush's fault, or they didn't take their meds that morning, or whatever bullshit excuse they have for losing this war, we'll all call bullshit.
Because you were right, Stan. And Joe Biden was wrong. It wasn't that the war wasn't winnable. It clearly wasn't that Afghanis didn't want our help. They were the loudest voices backing you up.
It was that Democrats and various non-military folks didn't have the courage to fight it. And didn't really give a shit, in the first place.
And so they don't. But we won't let them forget that, either. Ever.
I like Stanley McChrystal is the truth. And Joe Biden is half-baked in most of his ideas about just about everything, these days. Remember dividing Iraq into 3 ethnic conclaves? Right. And you wonder where people get their notions of American imperialism.
But the bigger story, here, is the fact of Washington that everyone's just gotten used to, at this point, apparently. Which is how much ego runs things in this city.
You would think that a city that experienced as much failure as D.C. would be humbler. But, humility, apparently, is for the weak. As is anything more honest in this world.
I do hope we maintain a commitment in Afghanistan as long as Afghanis feel like they need our help. We did start this war, after all. And we still have a certain terrorist and his minions, in this region, that need tracking down.
But it would be refreshing if something as grave and serious as war, with so many peoples' lives on the line, could be engaged with less ego and more humble, honest, serious attention to the matter at hand and a genuine commitment to accomplish the mission successfully. On everyone's part. McChrystal's ego is hardly unique in Washington. The Administration. Congress. The press and activists, especially, whose egos seem to know no bounds.
Be nice to have an America where everyone pitches in to do the heavy lifting. Or maybe we've given up on that idea. Or whatever millionth excuse we have for why we can't face up to just how foolish and dysfunctional Washington has become.
Wave of the future, folks. Progress never looked so promising.
I find myself wondering, often, most days, whatever invested my heart in people and politics, at all, these days, given the stubborn mess that this stubbornest, messiest of all human affairs has become in America and in the world. FUBAR. As wiser minds than me refer to it.
Jack says it better than me. So I'll let him speak.
I care, is the truth. I really tire watching innocent people die and live in fear and under the thumb of whomever with no other real options. Because of the stubborn power obsession of various partisans. All for very little real purpose, by my lights, tragically.
Politics is the strangest of all enterprises, I think. Because it's the one enterprise where it's participants all assert certainty when they can't possibly know it. Often, no matter the consequences. And they do so all in contradiction, no less. All around the cynical notion that if they deny it long enough, they can access the power that will make everything in the world right again.
Watching what often looks like an impossible tangle of pride and sanctimony and failure, and the curious and nonsensical blame-shifting posing as honest responsibility. The same folks strangely wagging fingers at the world to take responsibililty for their lives. I get a little weary, is the truth.
Like most folks, I really don't have much other choice that to let it all wash over. And live a life I love. Do work I love. Settle down. Make a family. And pay these folks as little mind as possible, I suppose, anymore.
I'm convinced that Jack's musical effort to make peace with the tragedies that various stubborn partisans of a million stripes have made commonplace in the world is about all most people can do, sadly. In a world that will not face its failures honestly.
I do honestly hope, one day, that this will change. That people will get more honest about how far down a road of senseless failure and tragedy we've come. And, though most folks don't see it, the contributions that most of us make to the rationalization of the worst tragedies and abuses in the world, now and as long as homo sapien has roamed the earth. How frequently and reliably our aggressive, predatory natures betray us. And how that includes those who pride themselves as civilized as much as those who claim no such aspiration.
But, alas, I am older and more tired of this game posing as something more honest, today, than I was in my youth. Not less hopeful, necessarily. Just making peace with it. And with the fact that all of us need as much time as we need to face failures and learn the lessons (for those who will learn them, at all) as we need. Including those who would deny that to others.
And the most serious limitation I have in my life to face, in front of me, is the limits of persuading folks to take a humbler, more genuinely open-hearted, open-minded, honest route, if they don't wanna.
If they don't wanna, they don't wanna, is the truth. I wonder, often, if Hobbes and Shakespeare and most folks in an older Europe felt something similar watching Protestants and Catholics playing a very similar, more brutal version of the same tragic game. Or anywhere partisans maintained such an irrational obsession with power. Or people maintained the impulse to aggression to beat whatever problem into submission since the predation of the earliest hominids and homo sapiens.
It's been one of the harder limitations in life for me to face. For someone whose confidence seems boundless, I'm sure, to most of my friends and family.
It's been so difficult because the stakes are so large. And accepting the world as the dysfunctional, aggressive mess that it is just seems unacceptable to me, as it would, I'm sure, for anyone who honestly cares about people. Who doesn't want to see them die, needlessly. Or live in fear. Or be bullied. By anyone.
But there's only so much I can do, as it turns out, to turn that tide. And accepting that is one of the more unexpected turns in my life till this point, is the truth.
When various folks, partisans of any stripe - strong-arming for whichever position they have convinced themselves of, today (often contrary to the very same position that they had convinced themselves of, in another time, and asserted the same need to strong-arm on its behalf, then as now; from someone who's changed his mind, plenty, in my own life as much as me seeing it in the world) - say that there is nothing that anyone else can do about it, if they have the power, there's a grain of truth to that. Absent choosing differently in the future.
That's the cynical calculation of power that has animated its use and abuse since the beginning of civilization. And likely before. And perhaps for as long as humans have a space on this little world.
It's so funny.
Jack's song captures it so sweetly and so well. That we can never know. No matter how much we pretend otherwise. But you wouldn't know it talking politics with most folks, strangely. Certainly not with its most active participants. Especially it's most brutal. But, really, all of us, when most folks are honest.
What I do know, more than anything else, at this point in my life, that this propensity, to want to have it all figured out and to be willing to fight to the death, metaphorically, and, all too tragically, literally, for most of our long tragic history, for that purpose (excepting when that is literally necessarily, obviously) makes a mess of life almost everywhere for almost everyone without exception.
Hence the call to moderation. By Aeschylus and Aristotle. And so many of the wisest minds who have watched this repetition of human folly and tragedy unfold time and time again.
And, sadly, our perpetual propensity to ignore that wisdom. Or, more often, I'm finding, manipulating it. For whatever purposes people see fit for themselves.
It's really hard, is the truth, to you watch all of that, if you care about the people it's happening to, and you have to face the fact that there really is only so much you can do to help.
It weighs on my heart like a heavy burden that is impossible to lift on my own, is the truth. But which so many cannot, will not, see past their own sad, foolish, often counterproductive sanctimony to consider otherwise.
So I'm making my peace with it, tonight. Trying at least. I've been working on it for a couple weeks, now, is the truth. Until folks are willing to consider something more humble and open-hearted.
Perhaps a little lovemaking might be in order. Perhaps some music would set the mood.
Breath of fresh air, today. And a nice reminder that most folks in the American press and political class are really out of their leagues when it comes to the study of power.
“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.” ~ Charles de Montesquieu
Or the more apt sentiment, right now.
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
Or my particular favorite.
"The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivaly of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise." ~ Mark Twain
Or you could follow the assholes driving this country into a serious shithole.
What for? It's an accident, for God's sakes. I suppose we should shame our kids for shittin' in their diapers. Would make as much sense.
The arrogance of the left, right now, like too many of their right-wing counterparts, is stinky and putrid. Which is what elections are for. Which is why they're losing them. And why they'll keep losing them. No matter what excuses they make for their sorry-ass activism. Which has clearly made this situation, like Katrina, more problematic than it ever was originally.
I don't care how arrogant the left gets. Disdainful? Is that the term John Stewart used?
These guys have a point. So does John Stewart, if you watch that video. About the effort to compensate people hurt by this mess. Just noone - left, right, or otherwise - is listening to one another, anymore.
Good example for the kids, there, I suppose.
And the more I watch, the more I really just don't trust any of them all. Which is apparently how most Americans feel about the same folks, if the polls mean anything. And, at this point in the game, it means I'm voting against the assholes doing all the strong-arming. And give two shits about what they have to say about jack shit.
That's called counterproductive, by the way, if you're keeping count. While you're pretending that everything's going hunky-dory. It's also called failure. And seriously mucking everything up, in the meantime. All so folks don't have to ever acknowledge that they might be wrong about any damn thing.
It doesn't matter to me, anymore, if assholes can't get the picture, is the truth. It's just time for them to take some much needed time off.
These parents are jailed because they want to choose which schools their daughters go to. They choose not to send their daughters to an integrated school because they are concerned about the temptations of the modern world (a legitimate concern, even if I disagree with their fears of the modern world).
And this journalist rationalizes their jail sentences as "the ultra-Orthodox minority's refusal to accept the authority of the state" and the "extent the ultra-Orthodox live by their own rules, some of them archaic, while wielding disproportionate power in the modern state of Israel."
It didn't even occur to him that they might have a legitimate concern. And that, more importantly, those children are not his, nor the state's. They are people in their own right. And the responsibility, primarily, of those parents. And jailing parents who want to choose where their daughters go to school is nothing remotely close to anything resembling progress.
Where one educates one's children is among the most intimate and important choices a parent can make. And jailing parents for taking that choice seriously, even when you disagree with the choice, when it is a matter of conscience, as it so clearly is here, is repugnant.
This case is also, sadly, a lesson for social conservatives, like these Jews, who are, tragically, reaping what they sow, as well. If there is any argument for why religious conservatives should back off from efforts to coerce the consciences of others - gay marriage comes immediately to mind - this is the one. Because the other alternative is living with the consequences.
Coercing conscience is not progress. It is the long road of tragedy that has animated the great bulk of human history. What far too many are doing in the liberal democratic world, today (nevertheless the illiberal world) is trying to turn the clock backward. And cynically pretending that with enough force, no one can do anything about it anyway.
This was and is the rationale for Naziism, Communism, Islamism, imperialism, and every serious abuse of power that has ever reared its ugly head in this sad, strange, foolish little world.
It was also what got 70 million killed in WWII. 16 million in WWI.
"'It was not my intention for anyone to be threatened but they do and I have to take responsibility and I do,' said embattled teacher Catherine Ariemma.
The Dahlonega history appeared on Good Day Xtra Tuesday morning to address a controversial incident that has placed her at the center of a media firestorm.
Ariemma was placed on administrative leave after allowing for students to wear mock Ku Klux Klan outfits as part of a high school history class project. Ariemma says the costumed students were taking part in a reenactment about the history of racism. Some black students in the lunchroom became upset when they saw the students walking through the cafeteria in the outfits.
Ariemma says she was escorting the students [sic] wearing sheets and didn't realize lunch was in session.
'That was the mistake, in that there were a lot of students in there who were not going to hear that this was a class project, so they saw something and took it out of context, and of course they had no way of knowing-- they had no way of knowing,' said Ariemma."
The person being villified, here, is the one person talking any real sense.
Why?
Because she's thinking. When the whole world is reacting. Constantly.
And confusing it with making any damn sense, at all.
If he came on televison, leaned against the lecturn, and said something along these lines:
"Howdy folks. My fellow Americans. And all the rest of you scoundrels out there, too.
I don't know if you've heard about this situation we got with oil and the Gulf of Mexico, and all that, right now. But it's a God awful mess, as you may have heard. And I reckoned I might come by and share a few thoughts with you folks about what's happening and what folks are doin' about it.
There's, essentially, two groups of people, right now, you understand, working on cleaning up this mess. BP. Which has really been fixin' on pluggin' this hole pretty much non-stop, since it bust. And me and my people. Who are doin' everything we can to help the folks doin' the fixin'.
Everybody else, for the most part, is engaged in a whole other activity all-together.
It's called bitchin'. You may have heard of it.
Most of these folks are bitchin' about something for which they have about zero plans to actually doing anything that might resemble heavy lifting. But constantly moanin' about how slow the muscle-bound folks are heavin' up the bar.
It's gotten a bit ridiculous, these days, is the truth. On most things. Not just this mess. Because not only are these good, decent Americans not really helping matters. They're kinda in the way, is the truth. Because they're just makin' it that much harder for folks actually doin' the work to concentrate on doing their job. And they could use all the mental energy they could get their hands on, these days, as you can imagine.
So my suggestion for folks is this:
Chill the fuck out. Go watch some Karate Kid.
Let folks doing the heavy lifting do the job. If you have some decent, solid suggestions for things that might do some actual good, send 'em our way. They might come in handy. But, if not. Maybe think about takin' a chill pill and either get out of the way. Or get used to being ignored. Either one will do just fine. But getting out of the way or actually doin' some tangible good, might work better for everyone involved. Including you. And all those delicious gulf shrimpies everyone's concerned about. And anyone who might actually give a hoot about getting things turned around.
Thanks for your attention, folks. And make sure not to kill the suspense and go tellin' me if that kid wins or not, this time around. I'll check it out at the drive-in soon 'nuf. Though I'm pretty sure the kid pulls it out in the end."
But that would be far too sensible for these times, obviously.
So, in lieu of something more sensible, I'm gonna follow some World Cup and hope it all doesn't come crashin' down in the end. The world, that is. I never know how this thing ends. Suspense is killin' me.
Perhaps the professor might consider, that, except when there is real danger involved or when it involves someone else, most people, when they're really honest, would tell ya no. And that they wish they had a million dollars.
Notice how the same folks who celebrate this law also wanted Lewis Libby freed and Ronald Reagan exempt from prosecution on Iran-Contra? Permanent tax cuts and as much oil as will fill their bellies?
Or how the same folks who want more regulation for BP, Goldman Sachs, and right-wing radio also want to smoke the doobies and let the illegals stay?
Why?
Because most people want the law applied when someone else's ass is in a snag. Or when it's something they already believe in.
Maybe, just maybe, the first reason - real danger - is the only time the law makes sense to get involved. Maybe the rest is what has made the world a goddamned mess.
Especially in societies that take their bullshit more seriously than the likes of us. North Korea comes to mind. Iran makes an appearance.
And maybe where we're headed is no Sodom and Gomorrah, at all, as it turns out. Maybe a world where people don't take the law so goddamn seriously is no serious tragedy, remarkably. Which is where we're headed, by the way, if you're keeping close count.
Maybe where we're headed is a world of less bullshit.
And maybe that's a good thing, ladies and gents.
Because just maybe the bullshit's what's made us such a mess all along.
From someone for whom bullshit is a mother tongue. And English is just something I speak in my free time.
And the law is something I only follow when it's the right thing to do. And, sometimes, not even then.
If the crosswalk is too far down and it's too far to walk. Sometimes, I'll make that walk. Because my consience says so.
Though, sometimes, my conscience can doesn't give a rat's ass.
When I'm speaking English, that is. And decide to give the bullshit a rest.
If there is any job opening, whatsoever, for this position, I'm in, at this point. I need a break from the madness of international and domestic politics. And making love is the one thing in the world that I genuinely excel at.
Let me break down the big picture on this one. All of this, the entirety of that conflict, and this most recent detour into the surreal, is so these assholes don't have to admit that killing innocents and taking and attempting to retake land by force is and was wrong and that only a genuine commitment to peace will end all of this.
Israel outlaws boycotting. Because Palestine outlaws working in Israel.
Sounds like two other parties I know. And so many other parties, ideologies, religious groups, and various assholes looking for cover for their ugly impulses. More than I could ever keep count of.
What a sad and foolish species we homo sapiens are. Jesus offers us love and Lord Acton offers us honesty. And we opt for hate and sanctimony. Another name for senseless vanity. All so some other asshole doesn't have more of whatever senseless something we want. In the proud hope that in doing so, we always can get our way. And never have to admit we could ever be wrong about anything of import. Even when we so clearly are.
I would give up faith entirely if would do any good. Sadly, it doesn't. And all we are left with is fucking it up enough that we finally give it up. Same as it ever was. And ever will be. No matter how much we bullshit otherwise.
I'm sure we would have figured out, by now, that when they say pride is deadly, they mean it. Except that we are far too vain for something so humble.
I would say we were doomed, except that foolishness is damned foolish. And eventually we all get tired of it. Or at least of the consequences.
God knows I am. I need good food and a good movie. And a nice girl to make love with for a lazy weekend.
Making love on lazy weekends. Reason #4,589,321 I will never understand people whose greed outsmarts their love.
Some people miss all the good stuff in life. All so they can have plenty of the stuff that really doesn't matter. Sounds like a good song idea. Or a film. Or a book.
And the problem with Lady Gaga is that she's too goddamned reclusive.
Right.
If you believe that shit, I got an arc or two in Paris I'd willing to sell ya.
The humanity that looks at itself, right now, and says that it's problem is that it's too goddamned nice may need some serious correction in their lenses.
Journalists, like the rest of us, are the same selfish pricks who've been inhabiting this world since the dawn of homo sapiens.
And if there is any period in recent human history which should have dispelled the notion that this most predatory and dominant of species on the planet is too nice or too thoughtful, this should be the one.
I'm a dick. Things fall apart. And it's always someone else's fault.
And so it goes.
Jesus says pluck the beam from your own eye before you pluck the splinter from your neighbors'.
And we all sit around and bitch about how the boss has better tweezers.
Same as it ever was.
The problem with the world, you see, is too many folks like Nick Vujicic.
Too few folks like Hamas. Or Nancy Pelosi.
Right.
Silver lining?
No species can go on fucking shit up forever. At some point, people really do want to move forward. Even if it involves a little humble pie.
Listening to Jim Joyce's acknowledgement of his bad call, upsetting Armando Galarraga's perfect game, it occurs to me how little this happens in life.
That people just admit, openly, when they screw up something big. Especially on the biggest things.
Because we kick the shit out of them when they do, is the truth. And no matter how much doing that undermines peoples' willingness to admit when they screw up, and thus maintains the screwing up, we keep doing it. Especially in those areas of life where it matters most that we admit the mistakes.
And the most tragic mistake of all is our unwillingness to admit that any of this matters to getting things moving in a better direction. Because no matter how much we pretend that it doesn't matter, it very clearly does. And undermines most of the big calls in life.
Like him or not, Jesus was not bullshitting. Forgiveness and creating the space for people to admit when they've screwed up really does matter. For reasons practical more than theological. Some people never face up. And those people have to be dealt with differently. But those people are rarer than not. And what facilitates the lives of good people should not be dictated by our fear of the wicked. As a practical matter, more than anything else. Because it makes our lives less safe and less worthy of living. And that fact of existence will be so whether we acknowledge it or our failures in the matter or not.
Jim Joyce manned up and admitted his failure. 'Bout time we did the same.
