Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
I have a longer blog in mind for today. I will post it later tonight. I just wanted to drop a few lines on what I just saw on the TV. Bush doing comedy at some kind of radio and TV event.
He had a slideshow, and he had accompanying jokes. Among them were pictures of him looking under chairs and desks, accompanied by the line "Nope, no weapons of mass destruction under here."
Farking audacious. I am more than a bit troubled. Some might say, hey he has a sense of humour about it all. Yet is it not really a troubling sign that he can make light of the very justification for a war that has put both American soldiers and citizens in harms way? If there not under your chair, then where the fuck are they?
Of course, the idea of making light of things that are seriousness and indeed fatal, is not simply the province of the comedian in chief, nor just the right personality pundits like Dennis Miller and Michael Savage. The left is guilty of the same. I don't want to be too much of a party pooper, but how much energy does the so called progressive, left leaning intelligentsia waste on turning vital democratic dialogue into entertainment? Sure, even us who are interested in solving the countries power problem need a moment to relax and enjoy ourselves, me more than most. But we must be careful not to mistake bush-bashing comedy, or politically charged satire for effective activism.
If you think this is too heavy handed, well, you might be right. Sometimes the best way to inform is to entertain, perhaps an unfortunate outcome of our omnipresent media ecology.
more on this later.
He had a slideshow, and he had accompanying jokes. Among them were pictures of him looking under chairs and desks, accompanied by the line "Nope, no weapons of mass destruction under here."
Farking audacious. I am more than a bit troubled. Some might say, hey he has a sense of humour about it all. Yet is it not really a troubling sign that he can make light of the very justification for a war that has put both American soldiers and citizens in harms way? If there not under your chair, then where the fuck are they?
Of course, the idea of making light of things that are seriousness and indeed fatal, is not simply the province of the comedian in chief, nor just the right personality pundits like Dennis Miller and Michael Savage. The left is guilty of the same. I don't want to be too much of a party pooper, but how much energy does the so called progressive, left leaning intelligentsia waste on turning vital democratic dialogue into entertainment? Sure, even us who are interested in solving the countries power problem need a moment to relax and enjoy ourselves, me more than most. But we must be careful not to mistake bush-bashing comedy, or politically charged satire for effective activism.
If you think this is too heavy handed, well, you might be right. Sometimes the best way to inform is to entertain, perhaps an unfortunate outcome of our omnipresent media ecology.
Monday, March 22, 2004
ok, so less than an hour ago, I started this blog, and already I have an update. Don't expect this much kind of dedication in the future. I tend to get enthusiastic at first, then begin to wane. I usually wear myself thin with too many projects at once. but since I am always writing, this is really just an added dimension to an ongoing process. Eventually, I will get my own location for this, rather than blogspot, which is nonetheless pretty cool, in that is simple and free.
I just wanted to take an opportunity before sleep to record a few remarks concerning the assassination of Sheik Yassin. Obviously this is a tragic event. It is unfortunate for all involved, Palestinian and Israeli. It highlights several important points, a few which I will raise currently.
Yassin’s assassination has to date been the most significant in the IDF’s strategy of targeted killing. The fallout of the Ayash assassination is an indelible piece of violent history. This type of retaliatory violence will undoubtedly be visited upon the citizens of Israel. However, I fear that it will be of much more determined and fierce nature. As Rantissi has stated, this means open war. This is not simply an eye for an eye. Yassin’s death raises the stakes and puts a definitive end to any the voices who might have continued to perpetuate the myth of a peace process. There is no peace process, there is only war.
The roadmap for peace has ceased to be relevant. US engagement in the process, however minimal or extensive it might have been, has been for naught. This is truly counterproductive to the so called war on terror. We who live in the reasonable world of facts know that without stability, or at least a minimum engagement of hostilities in the Israel/Palestinian conflict, the war on terror can only be thought of as a war with no end. It may be that regardless of the Israel question, but any sense of forward momentum will be frustrated by an increase in violence. It seems ridiculous then, to call the potential capture of Zawahiri evidence of progress.
Leading me to my final point. We are losing this so called war on terror, and the corporate media, is, despite its sure reluctance, giving us just that story. There can be no way to spin certain facts. Madrid, Yassin, the continual carnage in the Sunni Triangle, what can be said of any of this except that the world is a significantly more dangerous place with the people like Cheney and Bush, Sharon, Mushareff, Blair in power. And the media cannot hide this, even the conservative media of spin and incessant bullying of so-called liberals cannot disguise the fact.
A more detailed analysis once things start to develop from this Yassin business.
I just wanted to take an opportunity before sleep to record a few remarks concerning the assassination of Sheik Yassin. Obviously this is a tragic event. It is unfortunate for all involved, Palestinian and Israeli. It highlights several important points, a few which I will raise currently.
Yassin’s assassination has to date been the most significant in the IDF’s strategy of targeted killing. The fallout of the Ayash assassination is an indelible piece of violent history. This type of retaliatory violence will undoubtedly be visited upon the citizens of Israel. However, I fear that it will be of much more determined and fierce nature. As Rantissi has stated, this means open war. This is not simply an eye for an eye. Yassin’s death raises the stakes and puts a definitive end to any the voices who might have continued to perpetuate the myth of a peace process. There is no peace process, there is only war.
The roadmap for peace has ceased to be relevant. US engagement in the process, however minimal or extensive it might have been, has been for naught. This is truly counterproductive to the so called war on terror. We who live in the reasonable world of facts know that without stability, or at least a minimum engagement of hostilities in the Israel/Palestinian conflict, the war on terror can only be thought of as a war with no end. It may be that regardless of the Israel question, but any sense of forward momentum will be frustrated by an increase in violence. It seems ridiculous then, to call the potential capture of Zawahiri evidence of progress.
Leading me to my final point. We are losing this so called war on terror, and the corporate media, is, despite its sure reluctance, giving us just that story. There can be no way to spin certain facts. Madrid, Yassin, the continual carnage in the Sunni Triangle, what can be said of any of this except that the world is a significantly more dangerous place with the people like Cheney and Bush, Sharon, Mushareff, Blair in power. And the media cannot hide this, even the conservative media of spin and incessant bullying of so-called liberals cannot disguise the fact.
A more detailed analysis once things start to develop from this Yassin business.
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