The One About...: April 2009

Thursday, April 30, 2009

The One About Why Shouldn't America's Relationship To Alcohol Be As Dysfunctional As Everything Else It Does?

To grossly over simplify a basic truth, Americans seem to have a love for Either/Or, All Or Nothing, kind of thinking. And in almost all cases the truth is not that simple.

Take for example the situation regarding alcohol.

Image via Wikipedia

Currently in almost all parts of the country the legal age is twenty one. And the attitude held by many is that if someone under that age, takes so much as one sip then they should be treated like any other criminal. And then of course once you reach that age, well you should automatically know how to handle alcohol responsibly.

Image via Wikipedia

Right? Oh and hey btw I'm going to fly a jumbo jet and land it without any training of any kind. Same principle basically.

The worst thing in many ways about this countries dualistic attitudes is that is all but completely stifles intelligent intercourse about a whole host of subjects, alcohol amongst them. Recently however one parent has braved a potential backlash to talk honestly about her decisions with regards to alcohol and her kids.

Teenage drinking is the hot topic among any group of red-blooded American parents. We face giant challenges today. When I grew up, the drinking age was 18. My own senior in high school is old enough to legally fight and kill a human being in Iraq, but too young to pop open a beer at home.

Admittedly, the whole issue of teens and drinking is scary when you meld reality with the irrationality of the teenage brain, or when you juxtapose human nature with the law. What should be clear-cut—kids under 21 can’t drink—is not so in practice. Our country’s puritanical roots, prohibitionist past, and attitude toward alcohol creates a subculture of fake IDs, sneaking around, and, as one mom said to me, “forcing kids and their cars further into the woods to drink.”

The article is well worth reading and really thinking about. One of the things that I liked best about it, was the way the author stressed being honest with kids, rather than simply giving them a lot of zero tolerance propaganda.

The One About Me And The Alcoholic Olympics.

Speaking from my own personal experiences I can definitely agree that parental modeling is very important. My own parents fit the "Weekend Warrior" style. They would be perfectly sober during the week, but when the weekend came it was time for them to go down to the bar and hang out with their friends. Almost invariably they came home sh'faced. Ironically for quite a while I was almost on the Temperance Wagon as their behavior had me pretty disgusted with drinking. Memories of being on a camping trip with my moms brothers and sisters joining us at a local lake, and my father in the morning a river of vomit streaming forth as he hung in the middle of the little airstream trailer, stay with me to this day.

But eventually I tried it and just like Mikey I liked it. For a time a little too much. Part of my problem was making the rather poor choice to become emotionally involved with an alcoholic. Once I saw I could not "save" her I decided to join her. I call this period my attempt to qualify for The Alcoholic Olympics. As the character of Tulip O'Hare says in the pages of Preacher, "Eventually every drunk gets a wake up call." Mine was the month that the only bill that got paid was rent and then only barely. After that I decided that I loved drinking so much that I didn't want to ever "have" to quit. So I took a hiatus.

When I came back to drinking it was as a much more aware person. I taught myself my "buzz level". Basically how much I can drink and have a little buzz but still be able to cope with an emergency. I also did some reading and learned about the importance of drinking water to prevent hangover. Finally I developed a rule for drinking that would later help me with my food issues too. I call it the "The work and grimace rule". Very simply put, the first mixed drink, the first shot, or the first beer usually tastes really really good. The second one, not too bad either. Usually from the third on I notice myself grimacing before every swallow and feeling like I'm on the clock. That means I'm no longer enjoying it, and so it's time to stop.

No it's not a perfect system, and obviously would not work for everyone. But how much better to put out the idea of acting in moderation than this all or nothing crap that so many seem to favor?

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

The One About The Old Math Does Not Work In The New Online World.

I came across an article on Wired talking about the person who designed Twitter's Logo.

The bird on Twitter’s home page, familiar to millions, is small, cute and fun, and implies communication and anticipation. One might say it’s the perfect graphic for Twitter. Yet the company paid its designer at most $6, without attribution.

Some designers claim crowdsourcing is evil because it devalues their work by driving down prices, allowing amateurs into the game and forcing people to work "on spec," meaning that they don’t get paid unless their design is chosen. Others see it as a natural evolution driven by supply, demand and technology.

The thing is that to an extent both sides are talking about this in language that is rooted in old concepts. But the truth is that in this brave new online world information is a much more valuable benchmark than mere currency. And Information Wants To Be Free.

This saying has been attributed to Stewart Brand,

Image via Wikipedia

and it has become something of a battle cry and sticking point in debates over whether or not content providers should be charging consumers. But personally I think that a deeper truth is being missed. A truth ironically shown in the very same Wired article that brings up the whole question of crowdsourcing in the first place.

I think that we will come to understand that what Information Wants To Be Free, really means is that the internet forces a level of honesty and transparency never imagined before. It is easier than ever for the true authors and originators to be recognized for their work no matter who may make use of it. And the Wired article simply proves this. After all in the past if Twitter had wanted to deny credit to the creator of a piece of art work they were using, well how was anyone to find out differently? Records stored in a file somewhere? How would a journalist go about finding someone to talk to about the logos true creator? Try to make a friend on the inside at Twitter? While finding the truth would have been possible it would have been damned difficult, and probably only someone with a real mania for discovering it would have found even half the story. But now? Now it takes more time, energy, and money to suppress information than it does to release it. That is the real freedom that Information Wants To Be Free speaks of. And it's the reason why in time all of the copyright zealots will fall by the wayside. Because the simple truth is that it is almost impossible for anyone to truly "steal" anything from you. Even if they succeed for half a minute, someone will come across the true author sooner usually rather than later. And even better they will spread the word, like a fire in a tinder dry forest. So instead of hunkering in your bunker worrying about your last creation, get busy on your next one. Because one thing that probably will never change in the world of creative endeavors is the eternal question, "So what have you done lately?"

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The One About A The Blog Of A True Revolutionary.(A Website Wednesday Spotlight Report)

In the course of doing traffic exchange work I come across a lot of websites. And because of my particular interests I of course pay more attention to the political ones than I do a lot of the rest. Recently I came across one blog that at first caught my eye because of it's rather clever name. The Mahatma X Files. The blog covers politics and current events from an unflinchingly progressive viewpoint. It was a recent article on the torture debacle that cemented this as one of my favorite blogs.

Torture in the Obama era
One of my consistent themes over the last year, when Obama's ascendancy to the White House throne was merely a faux-progressive wet dream, is that on such matters as post 9/11 "war on terra" policies such as torture the White House occupant and his/her party affiliation would make not a dime's worth of difference. The Pope of Hope has not failed to fulfill my initial impressions in the last several months.

Although others have already analyzed the most recent news on the eerie continuance between the Bush II regime and the Obama regime on the matter of torture, I would like to at least reinforce what is out there, and admonish those who continue to cling to their American Idol (which is essentially what the American presidency has devolved into) to reconsider their loyalties and to try something novel: adhere to fundamental principles of human rights and dignity.

Thus far, aside from the symbolic "closure" of the Guantánamo Bay torture chambers, and a few superficial semantic changes (the term "enemy combatant" has been scrubbed from the official governmental lexicon, as has the term "Global War on Terror"), the evidence to date should leave human rights activists and advocates both startled and angry. Although documents from the previous regime have begun to trickle into what passes for news media, Obama's regime has refused to pursue investigations and where appropriate prosecutions of those who crafted the policies in the first place. When an authority figure admonishes his/her subordinates to "move forward" or to "forgive and forget" my impulse is to not take it on face value - rather than suggesting we all gather 'round the campfire and sing "Kumbaya" what Obama is doing is to subtly demand that we dissenters shut up.

Rather than shut up, I hope that those of us who still pass for dissidents in the U$A will ramp up our criticism - reminding those of conscience that torture techniques, that contrary to our ruling elites' propaganda and regardless of which political party presides over them, fail abysmally as a means of obtaining truth (whether we want to define truth as confessions or intelligence), and that merely substituting one gulag for another (as in the case of mothballing Gitmo while expanding Bagram) is simply unacceptable on either pragmatic or moral grounds.

This blog is filled with similar content. Well written articles that make the authors passion and intelligence more than evident. In a blogosphere where it often seems that the loudest and most passionate voices are from the far Right, this is a voice for the Progressive Left that is sorely needed.

I for one am very glad that The Mahatma X Files exists to help in this very important struggle.

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

The One About The Myth Of Virginity And The Damage It Does.

The other day The Love Of My Life found an article on MSNBC that she shared with me. The article is a sizable excerpt from a new novel called "The Purity Myth". I wanted to share a couple of paragraphs and then offer my own thoughts on the subject from my own perspective.

There is a moral panic in America over young women’s sexuality — and it’s entirely misplaced. Girls “going wild” aren’t damaging a generation of women, the myth of sexual purity is. The lie of virginity — the idea that such a thing even exists — is ensuring that young women’s perception of themselves is inextricable from their bodies, and that their ability to be moral actors is absolutely dependent on their sexuality. It’s time to teach our daughters that their ability to be good people depends on their being good people, not on whether or not they’re sexually active.

“The Purity Myth” is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. When I lost my virginity as a high school freshman, I didn’t understand why I didn’t feel changed somehow. Wasn’t this supposed to be, like, a big deal? Later, in college, as I’d listen to male friends deride their sexual partners as sluts and whores, I struggled to comprehend how intercourse could mean one thing for men and quite another for women. I knew that logically, nothing about sex could make a girl “dirty,” but I found it incredibly frustrating that my certainty about this seemed to be lost on my male peers. And as I talked to my queer friends, whose sexual experiences were often dismissed because they didn’t fit into the heterosexual model, I started to realize how useless “virginity” really was.

While boys are taught that the things that make them men — good men — are universally accepted ethical ideals, women are led to believe that our moral compass lies somewhere between our legs. Literally. Whether it’s the determining factor in our “cleanliness” and “purity” or the marker of our character, virginity has an increasingly dangerous hold over young women. It affects not only our ability to see ourselves as ethical actors outside of our own bodies, but also how the world interacts with us through social mores, laws, and even violence.

It’s high time to do away with outdated — and dangerous — notions of virginity. If young women’s only ethical gauge is based on whether they’re chaste, we’re ensuring that they will continue to define themselves by their sexuality.

The author makes excellent points and I shan't dispute a one of them. However I wish to offer another perspective on the subject from a male viewpoint.

Because I believe that for reasons that are both similar and different, the virginity myth is just as dangerous and debilitating for boys and men of all ages.

Don't you like girls?

For as long as I can remember I have been very introspective. I've always wanted to understand why I feel, and think, and act as I do. As a result even as I grew older and began to feel attracted to girls, I didn't give such matters too much thought because I was devoting all my energies to trying to figure myself out. As a result I displayed a certain amount of ambivalence to a lot of things that another person might have eagerly embraced, especially in matters social. This attitude went neither unnoticed nor unremarked, not only by my "peer group" so called but also by members of my own family. One day while attempting to figure out why I wasn't more keen to go to school dances (I was fat, awkward, and shy hmm it's a mystery that goes unsolved to this day.) my grandmother asked me point blank, "Don't you like girls." Wow. So because I'm not chasing girls with sufficient zeal, well then clearly I must be gay. Thanks Gram. The woman meant well but frankly it was in part her and her religion that contributed to my state of confusion. Here was the message of Christianity as I was given to understand it. "Sex is dirty, unless you're married and then it's beautiful, but you shouldn't get married just to have sex, really you should wait until you're in your twenties, oh and no jerking off in the meantime." Wow. Is it any wonder that I might have cause for pause on the whole situation?

Liars, Damn Liars, And Male Virgins.

But if I thought the gentle probing from my grandmother was rough well what my co-schoolers gave me was akin to verbal torture er I mean enhanced interrogation. There seemed to be a perpetual state of inquiry into my sexual status or lack of same. And anytime that I failed to give what high school society deemed was a proper response, I was punished, by belittling, innuendo, and use of the dreaded F word. Finally reaching a point where I was sick and tired of such nonsense I did what a great many young men do, I lied. Frankly I was not much of a liar, but it seemed to silence most if not all of my critics. To this day I maintain that never in your life will you have as many near total strangers taking as their god given right, an active interest in your sex life or lack of same, as you do in high school.

I've Seen The Myth And The Damage Done.

The fundamental problem is that for young males just as for females there are precious few if any examples of healthy sexuality for them to see. While young girls are punished if they are to embracing of sex, young males are punished in they are not embracing enough. And for young men just as for young women, the counter message comes from the fundamentalist Christian camp. At almost no time is a message like this given to young people of either gender, "Sex is an experience that will affect you in a variety of ways and you should not have it until you feel you are ready to. When you do have sex you should be respectful of yourself and your partner and seek to be as safe as possible. Choosing to have or not have sex does not make you a better or worse person, and the act of sex does not convey some kind of special status any more than refraining from sex does."

Is it a perfect message? No of course not, because there is no such thing. But it is certainly a much better message than the ones young people are being given now. Messages that leave young men damaged because they are unable to relate in a healthy way to their own desires and to the desires of women. And young women because it frames them as only worthwhile for their chastity.

For myself I wish someone had given me that message. It would have saved me years of feeling that my natural feelings were somehow wrong and dirty but at the same time feeling that I was equal wrong somehow for not pursuing them. Also in later years I might have been saved from what to this day is a fairly ambivalent relationship to my own sexuality. It is time that society realizes how much damage has been done through out the years.

And frankly it's well past time that we put a stop to such garbage, for the sake of both genders.

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The One About That's Just How I Do Twit.

All right everyone time for a little break from News and Politics. Just a little one though.

Now I'm a strange mixture of humble and arrogant. This blog is a perfect example. On the one hand I am arrogant enough to offer up my opinions twice daily and think that people really would want to read them. On the other hand I am humble enough to know that mine is not the only opinion out there, and many people even those that I largely disagree with may still have valid points.

Well it's kind of like that with using Twitter. While I do think I've gotten a pretty good handle on using it, at the same time I refuse to tell people how "they" should use this wonderful service. But what I will do is share how I use it and let people take my ideas and use them or not as I see fit.

Let's start with the basics. My Name and profile pic.

Toriach is not my birth name, nor is it the name I use in the offline world. But it is my identity. The thing is I came into the online world back in the mid nineties when everyone was using various and sundry aliases. Toriach (well it's a long story actually as to the history of the name) was the one I chose because it was unique, and didn't sound too lame. Over the years it has become a kind of brand. It is the only ID I use, and because it is highly unique I've yet to be denied it's usage when I've tried to register somewhere with it. While I understand people who suggest that you use your real name, I'm more comfortable with a little bit of anonymity, and ultimately in a very real way Toriach is me.

As to the pic, well frankly seeing a pic of me won't tell you much. However for those with knowledge of what my icon means, that will tell you a lot. It is the symbol of the fictional Green Lantern Corps from DC Comics Green Lantern.

Cover of Green Lantern Corps: Recharge

I have been a big believer in the power of the human will all my life and that is what that symbol represents to me.

What I use to post and view tweets.

I primarily use Tweetdeck. I like the fact that it is not only very very customizable, but also very easy to do so. It's ridiculously easy to filter tweets into various groupings and to change things around as needed. And while I generally don't use it I like that it has built in URL shorteners, and will do things like shrink your tweet if you're over 140 characters. I have a column for celebrity twits, one for news organizations, one for other bloggers, one set to search for any mentions of my user name, and one for misc which is largely services. I also have the all column. It is important to keep that so I can be sure to catch new people I'm following that I haven't put in a column yet. One really nice thing about Tweetdeck is that you can pick how often it updates which it does automatically. When I am just surfing I'll have it do it every minute, when I'm trying to research, write, or do traffic exchange I'll set it to every half an hour.

The downside is that it is a little piggish for bandwidth and if you are on a slower connection may be more hassle than it's worth. That and when it tries to auto update and fails it does not notify you of the fact the way it notifies you when it suceeds. The other weakness I use my other favorite Tweet viewing method to address.

When you click on a link it shuffles you over to the newly opened window instead of just opening it and letting you stay within Tweetdeck, which I find a little annoying.

So to look at links I will use Tweettree. I like it because it offers a preview of shortened URL's and also because it presents @replies as threads. Also while it does not auto update, it does show you how many new tweets are waiting so you can update when you wish. My habit is to go through periodically, favorite everything that I want to either look at or reply to, and then I'll open stuff up using Tweettree.

A word on favoriting.

When I started to get above following about fifty people it got harder and harder to deal with all the tweets. That's when I learned that the Favorite button is my best friend. Now I just favorite anything that looks even half ways interesting and then will unfavorite stuff later.

Twitter versus Digg etc.

I've stopped using Digg and now use Tweetburner, which has a bookmarklet called Twurl this. It not only shortens URL's but also tracks their clickage.

Tweeting new blog posts.

At first I used a service that would tweet whenever I published a new post to my blog, but I found it was a bit to static. So now I use a combination of Twurl and Future Tweets. One of the best suggestions I've come across is that you should put your tweet in the form of a question relevant to the post so as to get your readers attention. I have my posts set to publish daily at one pm and I usually tweet a link around that time. I then set future tweets to re tweet the link every six hours, that way I am sure to catch any of my followers regardless of what time they may be on. Future Tweets is very easy to use, and so far as I know has no limit on the number of tweets per hour you can schedule.

Dealing with followers.

I get follower updates via topify as it provides more info so I don't have to be looking peoples profile up all the time. Also from time to time I will use Twitter Karma, which allows me to easily see who I'm following and who's following me, and easily bulk follow or unfollow. Also from time to time I use Tweepler. One thing I absolutely do not do is autofollow. Period. While I appreciate every one of my followers not everyone that follows me is offering something that I'm interested in. It doesn't mean anything beyond it's not for me. Personally while I think it's neat that I'm currently at like 127 followers to me that's not the point. The point is to have meaningful net work, not just to game twitter so as to drive people to my blog. Besides I generally tend to trust steady slow growth over extremely rapid growth.

Some of the Twittitique I adhere to.

I try to use VIA instead of RT especially if what I'm passing on is a link. If it's something that a Twit has said then I'll use RT. Also I do not link jack, but a always careful to rt whatever link the person has used as they may be tracking it like I do with my links.

My thoughts of #Follow_Fridays.

I pick one Twit and only one each Friday. I then write a short post about them and tweet that. I hate people who do nothing but give tweet after tweet of @links with no context as to why they think others should follow, and generally I pay those tweets no mind.

Analyzing my Twitter usage.

I use Twitalyzer as I feel that it is balanced and informative. However I take anything like that with a grain of salt, as ultimately statistics will change over time.

My quest for improvement.

The one area that I really want to do better in, is in engaging more. Often I get so caught up in researching and writing posts that I'll have Twitter on, but I won't tweet anything which I'm trying to change.

Well that's some of the ways in which I use Twitter, I hope you found some information useful. If you have any suggestions post them in the comments I'd love to hear them.

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

The One About Second Thoughts On Obama's Refusal To Prosecute Rank And File Torturers.

Allow me to start with a disclaimer. I still firmly believe that everyone who participated in torture should be investigated and tried, no matter who they are. Rather my second thoughts have to do with trying to make sense of our Presidents reasoning.

One of the thinks that got me to thinking was reading a book featuring Noam Chomsky

Image via Wikipedia

talking about American Imperialism both before and after The Date. One of the things he asserted was that the people who most need to be held accountable are not the low level soldiers who are usually the ones blamed, but rather the people in the upper echelons who are truly responsible for making the decisions that set the tone. He also offered that in his opinion the Nuremberg trials were unique because their focus was largely on the higher levels rather than the rank and file.

I was pondering this in light of President Obama's avowal that CIA agents and others who believed they were acting under orders in a framework created by Bushco. would not be prosecuted. And I mused aloud to The Love Of My Life, that perhaps it was a similar reasoning. She offered the suggestion that it may be pure practicality, since in reality there is only so much resource available to pursue these people. Which honestly makes a lot of sense.

However even if one finds such reasoning sound, there is still the question of why he chose to publicly state that he would be pursuing the lower echelons who participated in torture.

Personally I think this goes to one of the defining characteristics of Mr. Obama and one that is probably his greatest strength and weakness. Namely his desire for openness. I think that some people are secretive and manipulative by nature and some are not. I am firmly convinced that Dick Mephistopheles Cheney and Karl Creepy Rove would lie about what they had for breakfast.

President Obama, however is a different kind of person. Now I'm not saying he doesn't lie, but I don't thing it's his default position. I suspect that us much as possible he prefers to speak as much of the truth as he possibly can. And that is a noble, even I'd say laudable instinct. However it is sometimes strategically unwise. Right now is one of those times. Even if he had no intention what so ever of pursuing the so called "low hanging fruit", he never should have said so. It has essentially robbed him of the power to put pressure on those people, so as to get at the real architects of torture within the Bush administration.

Sadly I suspect that this will not be the last time that we will have this problem. Frankly it is the reason why a great many good people don't enter politics, because some ways being a good person can sometimes be debilitating to ones effectiveness. And sadly this situation may end up as one of the text book examples.

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

Monday, April 27, 2009

The One About The Grave Danger Inherent In A Modern American Civil War.

Recently there has been some pot stirring within the ranks of the more shall we say extreme end of the Conservative pool. There have been some that have suggested that if the government of the United States of America does not make decisions that they feel sufficiently suits the needs and agendas of their states, then those states may seek to secede from the Union. That's right, this is not a repeat from the nineteenth century. Some people are talking secession. Most famously it's been Texas. It started with Right Wing action movie star and dumbass Chuck Norris

Image via Wikipedia

but lately such talk has even been coming from the states Governor.

Such talk is not only idiotic, but it is also dangerous and shows that the people indulging in it, have no real understanding of history, nor of how lucky twice in it's existence the United States was.

One thing we have had on our side for a number of decades is size. This has allowed us to have a lot of breathing room from one another when times got bad.

The first time that this breathing room was necessary was after the War For Independence. In that case it was the Atlantic Ocean that provided a good buffer between our new nation and its former owners, that allowed things to settle down a wee bit, so that an endless state of bloody war did not perpetuate. (And while it may have been unpleasant trust me the War of 1812 was nothing compared to how bloody awful things would have been had England been right next door to us.)

Then a few decades later there was a civil war between the north and the south. After the war was over, the country was able to focus on westward expansion, and use the newly opened up territories to provide a little distance between the former enemies. And again while things were not in a perfect state of peace and harmony it could have gone so much worse had the west not been available to us, and instead former enemies had been pressed up against one another as had been the case in Ireland for so long between the Catholics and Protestants.

But now? Now even with there still being more open territory left in America than in most of Europe, the situation is never the less quite different. If there is secession, if there is another American Civil War, this time once it is over, there will be no place for the two sides to get away to. There will be no comfortable room to breathe, and I can promise you that in no time at all hostilities will flare up again and again, putting us in a constant state of war, just like so many of these third world countries we hear about in the news.

Anyone speaking on behalf of secession, whether they are sincere in what they say or not is dangerous and deluded and I hope to gods that they will not have to see the horrible results that will be wrought if they get their wish.

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

The One About The Socially Progressive Rock Of Rise Against.(A Media Monday Report)

There is a long history in the world of protest against the actions of the ruling elite carried on in song. It started well before America was finally settled, and it continued on long after. Two of the best known examples in more recent times would include the folk music protest songs of the '60's by artists such as Bob Dylan

Image via Wikipedia

and Joan Baez

Image via Wikipedia

. A couple decades after that the punk movement picked up the gauntlet. It had seemed to many though that really good progressive protest music was a thing of the past. Most of today's musicians seem much too self absorbed. Then came along Bush Jr. This man and his shenanigans have done more to wake people up than I think any touchy feely granola flake guru in the last fifty years could have managed. One of the earliest sign posts of such awakening was embodied pre Bush Jr. in the form of comedian muckraker Bill Hicks of whom I've spoken before. Hicks in many ways considered himself very much in the tradition of rock and roll stars with a conscience.

More recently though the group Green Day crafted the album American Idiot

Cover of American Idiot

as their response to BushCo. and their special brand of idiocy. However there are some who tend to think that Green Day are the exception rather than the new rule, and that by and large progressive, hard edged, protest rock is something that is only available on the fringes of the music scene.

Ever since I discovered the band Rise Against though I'm questioning if that is true.

I first found this band just a couple of months ago, totally by accident. I was sitting in the car waiting for The Love Of My Life to come out of Michaels, and this song came on the radio,

I was astounded. Not only did the music have the kind of driving force to it that I like in my hard rock (I am a huge fan of The Offspring and the afore mentioned Green Day) but also the lyrics were more than just clever, they really evoked an emotional response in me.

To the sound of a heartbeat pounding away
To the rhythm of the awful rusted machines
We toss and turn but don't sleep
Each breath we take makes us thieves
Like causes without rebels
Just talk but promise nothing else

We crawl on our knees for you
Under a sky no longer blue
We sweat all day long for you
But we sow seeds to see us through
'Cause sometimes dreams just don't come true
We wait to reap what we are due

To the rhythm of a time bomb ticking away
And the blare of the sirens combing the streets
Chased down like dogs we run from
Your grasp until the sun comes up

We crawl on our knees for you
Under a sky no longer blue
We sweat all day long for you
But we sow seeds to see us through
'Cause sometimes dreams just don't come true
Look now at what they've done to you

White needles buried in the red
The engine roars and then it gives
But never dies
'Cause we don't live
We just survive
On the scraps that you throw away

I won't crawl on my knees for you
I won't believe the lies that hide the truth
I won't sweat one more drop for you
'Cause we are the rust upon your gears
We are the insect in your ears
We crawl
We crawl
We crawl... all over you

We sow the seeds to see us through
Our days are precious and so few
We all reap what we are due
Under this sky no longer blue
We bring the dawn long over-due
We crawl
We crawl
We crawl... all over you

This was music that had energy, and also a lot of anger. And while it didn't name names, I could hear an indictment of not just the most recent administration, but of all those who continue to seek to abuse people and use them for their own gains. I liked it enough that I went looking for the name of the band. Thanks to the Internet, I not only found that but I also found that the entire album was available on YouTube (this was before I discovered Imeem). I eagerly listened to the whole thing and discovered that the song I now knew to be called Re-education Through Labor, was not the only one on the album with a protest, progressive edge to it.

Another song that caught both my ear and my heart was Hero Of War,

A song about a young man who starts out with the noble but simplistic desire to be a patriot and war hero, and because of the things he sees and does is left questioning everything he once so easily held to be true and right and good.

He said "Son, have you seen the world?
Well, what would you say if I said that you could?
Just carry this gun and you'll even get paid."
I said "That sounds pretty good."

Black leather boots
Spit-shined so bright
They cut off my hair but it looked alright
We marched and we sang
We all became friends
As we learned how to fight

A hero of war
Yeah that's what I'll be
And when I come home
They'll be damn proud of me
I'll carry this flag
To the grave if I must
Because it's a flag that I love
And a flag that I trust

I kicked in the door
I yelled my commands
The children, they cried
But I got my man
We took him away
A bag over his face
From his family and his friends

They took off his clothes
They pissed in his hands
I told them to stop
But then I joined in
We beat him with guns
And batons not just once
But again and again

A hero of war
Yeah that's what I'll be
And when I come home
They'll be damn proud of me
I'll carry this flag
To the grave if I must
Because it's a flag that I love
And a flag that I trust

She walked through bullets and haze
I asked her to stop
I begged her to stay
But she pressed on
So I lifted my gun
And I fired away

The shells jumped through the smoke
And into the sand
That the blood now had soaked
She collapsed with a flag in her hand
A flag white as snow

A hero of war
Is that what they see
Just medals and scars
So damn proud of me
And I brought home that flag
Now it gathers dust
But it's a flag that I love
It's the only flag I trust

He said, "Son, have you seen the world?
Well what would you say, if I said that you could?"

Another song off the album called Entertainment,

speaks to the idea that even those who pursue a life in the world of art and entertainment are in their own way prisoners of the system.

All we are is entertainment
Caught up in our own derangement
Tell us what to say and what to do
All we are are pretty faces
Picture perfect bottled rage
Packaged synthesized versions of you

We've all made petty fortunes but we can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream California and its toppling empire
But can't you see the end is coming soon

Come one come all the new sensation
Guarantees then obligations
Spotlights follow every single move
Basking here on ten foot stages
Pouty lips and oh so jaded
All as if we have something to prove

Despite these petty fortunes we still can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream California and its toppling empire
But can't you see the end is here

And if we cared at all
about this unknown plight
then we'd do something more
to finally make this right

Is this only entertainment
Pull the curtains, places please
We've learned to sing and dance and cry on cue
But this is more than entertainment
In a world so sick with pain
This is the only thing that's real or true

We've all made petty fortunes but we can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream bloody murder over graves already dug
But can't you see the end

The final sample I'll offer is the first track from the album and the one that in many ways I feel not only encapsulates not only the albums over riding theme, but also perfectly captures the desperation that so many of us in the progressive movement feel.

When our rivers run dry and our crops cease to grow
When our summers grow longer and winters won't snow
From the banks of the ocean and the ice in the hills
To the fight in the desert where progress stands still
When we've lost our will

That's how we'll know
This is not a test, oh no
This is cardiac arrest
Of a world too proud to admit our mistakes
We're crashing into the ground as we all fall from grace

When the air that we breathe becomes air that we choke
When the marsh fever spreads from the swamps to our homes
When your home on the range has been torn down and paved
And the buffalo roam to a slaughterhouse grave
What more will it take

For us to know
This is not a test, oh no
This is cardiac arrest
Of a world too proud to admit our mistakes
Kissing the ground as we all fall from grace

This is a chance to set things straight
To bend or break the rules back into place
There is no middle ground, no compromise
We've drawn the line
With perfect aim, we stand back and throw
Glass windows break and it's all about to blow
Lights go out as we pass the torch again
In hope that is stays lit

Neutrality means that you don't really care
Cuz the struggle goes on even when you're not there
Blind and unaware

That's how we'll know
This is not a test, oh no
This is cardiac arrest
Of a world too proud to admit our mistakes
We're crashing into the ground as we all, yeah we all, all fall from grace

Powerful stuff. I've listened a little to their earlier songs, and while I can hear the embryonic form of what's presented on this most recent album, it's not quite up to par with their current effort. I'm eagerly awaiting their next album hoping it will equal if not surpass Appeal To Reason.

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

Thanks to http://www.plyrics.com where I found all the lyrics listed in this article. Needless to say all lyrics etc belong to their respective copyright holders.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

The One About Janeane Garofalo's Take On "Tea Parties".

Recently Keith Olbermann had Janeane Garofalo, on his show Countdown to offer her take on the so called "Tea Parties" held on April fifteenth. Below is the clip from YouTube, along with the transcript of the most pertinent of her remarks.

On a more serious note, we‘re now joined by actor and activist Jeanine Garofalo. Good to see you.

JANEANE GAROFALO, ACTOR: Thank you. You know, there is nothing more interesting than seeing a bunch of racists become confused and angry at a speech they‘re not quite certain what he thinks. It sounds right to them, and then it doesn‘t make sense.

Let‘s be very honest about what this is about. It‘s not about bashing Democrats. It‘s not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea party was about.

OLBERMANN: That‘s right.

GAROFALO: They don‘t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of tea bagging rednecks. And there is no way around that. And, you know, you can tell these type of right-wingers anything and they‘ll believe it, except the truth. You tell them the truth and they become—it‘s like showing Frankenstein‘s monster fire. They become confused, angry, highly volatile.

That guy caused in them feelings they don‘t know because of their limbic brain—we‘ve discussed before, the limbic brain inside a right-winger or Republican or conservative or your average white power activist - - the limbic brain is much larger in their head space than in a reasonable person. And it is pushing against the frontal lobe. So their synapses are misfiring.

Is Bernie Goldberg listening? Bernie might not have heard this when I said this the first time. So, Bernie, this is for you. It is a neurological problem that we‘re dealing with.

OLBERMANN: Well, what do you do about it, though? I mean, our friend in Pensacola there, who played them like a three dollar fiddle.

GAROFALO: Yes.

OLBERMANN: And led them right down the garden path with nothing but facts, and then they went, wait a minute, that doesn‘t sound like Rush Limbaugh. If you can‘t—

GAROFALO: Right.

OLBERMANN: If you can‘t get them to make that last leap to what are we all doing here, Howard Johnson is wrong.

GAROFALO: Yes.

OLBERMANN: How do you break through that?

GAROFALO: I don‘t think you do, for most of them. This is a pathological—it‘s almost pathological or elevated to a philosophy or lifestyle. Again, this is about racism. It could be any issue, any port in a storm. These guys hate that a black guy is in the White House, but they—they immigrant bash. They pretend taxes and tea bags—like I said, most of them probably couldn‘t tell you thing one about taxation without representation, the Boston Tea Party, British imperialism, whatever the history lesson has to be.

But these people always—unless there‘s some people with Stockholm Syndrome.

OLBERMANN: I didn‘t see them. They were in the back. They weren‘t near the cameras, which is bad strategy on the part of the people staging this at Fox.

GAROFALO: True. And Fox News loves to foment this anti-intellectualism. That is their bread and butter. If you have a cerebral electorate, Fox News goes down the toilet very, very fast. It is sick and sad to see Neil Cavuto doing this. They‘re been doing this for years. That‘s why Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch started this venture, is to disinform and to coarsen and dumb-down a certain segment of the electorate.

But what is really—I didn‘t know there were so many racists left. I didn‘t know that. As I said, the Republican hype in the conservative movement has now crystallized into the white power movement.

OLBERMANN: Is that not a bad long-term strategy. Even though—your point is terrifying there are that many racists left.

GAROFALO: Right.

OLBERMANN: The flip side of it is there aren‘t that many racists left.

GAROFALO: You‘re the minority, literally tens of people showed up to this thing across the country.

OLBERMANN: But if you spear your television network or your political party towards a bunch of guys who are just looking for a reason to yell at the black president, eventually you will marginalize yourself out of market, won‘t you?

GAROFALO: No. Here‘s what the right-wing has—there are no shortages of the natural resources of ignorance, apathy, hate sphere. As long as those things are in the collective conscious and unconscious, the Republicans will have some votes, and Fox News will have viewers. What else have they got. If they didn‘t do that, who‘s going to watch?

I mean, they have tackled that elusive clam—I said clam—you know, the clam demo, the 18 to 35 clam demo. Klan, with a K, demo. Who else is Fox talking? What is it, urban older white guys, and the girlfriend—you know, the women who suffer from Stockholm Syndrome again. There‘s a lot of Stockholm Syndrome, is what I‘m saying, ultimately.

What else you got? What do you want to know?

OLBERMANN: What if somebody was at one of these things hurts somebody.

GAROFALO: That is an unfortunate byproduct, since the dawn of time, of a volatile group like this of the limbic brain. Violence, unfortunately, may or may not ensue. It depends on immigrant bashing and hating the black guy in the White House. Will people act on that? It‘s not new. But, you know, Fox doesn‘t mind fomenting it. Michelle Bachmann doesn‘t mind fomenting it. Glenn Beck doesn‘t mine fomenting it.

OLBERMANN: Lou Dobbs.

GAROFALO: Lou Dobbs. Oh, man. But what have they got if they don‘t have this? You know what I mean? It‘s like identity politics of the worst kind.

When I first heard this, my honest gut reaction was to largely dismiss what she says. And frankly there is much of it that I disagree with, rather strongly. But the more I think about it the more I fear that she may at least in part be right about the racist nature of some of the protest against President Obama, and his policies and decisions.

The reason why I have such a hard time accepting such an explanation, is because to me personally it just makes no sense. To disagree with someone simply because of their race, or gender, or sexual orientation, is frankly ludicrous, and while I know such people exist, and can understand them on an intellectual level, in a deep and fundamental way I just don't get it. It saddens me more than a little to see that we still have so far to go.

However, for all that some of her observations may be largely correct I fear that Ms. Garofalo is making a fundamental mistake common to a great many Liberal Progressives. They are so often much too quick to dismiss fear as a motivator in people's actions. Treating it as something silly, or misreading the deeper fear for a shallower one.

While certainly there may be people who are simply standing against Obama because he is black, or Democrat, or from Chicago etc, I feel that many people are afraid and angry because of the rather frightening state of the economy, and that fear and anger is being manipulated for their own ends by the likes of Mephistopheles Cheney, and FOX News, and Rush Limbaugh. Plus in all fairness Obama and his people have not always helped matters. After all the most vocal and intelligent criticism about the administrations kid gloves treatment of Wall Street is coming from some of the most passionate members of the Progressive Left.

It is critically important for people on the Left to not alienate themselves from the majority by over intellectualizing the issues that people are worried about. Peoples fears even when not always logical are real and valid, at least to them, and you will get nowhere at all by being flippant and dismissive, which I fear to an extent Ms. Garofalo does become during parts of her most recent Countdown appearance. This helps no one. Not the people being manipulated by the Right, and not the cause that those on the Left wish to serve and so must be set aside.

What must be used in place are tools of both reason and compassion, helping people to see clearly through their fears and pain. Yes it takes a long time, and is not as emotionally satisfying as unloading on a bunch of people that you perceive as dullards, but it is ever so much more effective.

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

The One About A Couple Of Ideas I've Taken From Buddhism

Although Buddhism is one of the leading religions of the world, it is generally not very well understood. And frankly it is not the purpose of this article to offer an education into what Buddhists believe. But rather to talk about one or two ideas that I have taken from Buddhism and incorporated into my life in a secular way.

The main idea, is that of taking things as they are, rather than as one would wish them to be.

In what is seen, there should be just the seen;
In what is heard, there should be just the heard;
In what is sensed, there should be just the sensed;
In what is thought, there should be just the thought.

On the surface this sounds ridiculously easy, but in truth it is potentially one of the most difficult things you will ever do. For it means that you must try to let go of your illusions both positive and negative about yourself, other people, and the events in which you are both involved. Let's take an example from my own life.

The Love Of My Life, is to put it simply horrible about time management. Half the time when she gets involved in something she loses all track of time, even if there is something important that needs doing. When she is online she can quite literally spend hours at a clip, and honestly does not generally think about what else might need doing, or whether or not others might need to use the computer. And every time that I let myself get attached to the fantasy of how I wish she would behave (and in all fairness it's not that she doesn't care, but more that she is really really bad about keeping track of time, which is why we've largely solved the problem by me using the computer first since I do have good time sense, and she knows that I will not be a compu hogg)I wind up getting angry because of course no person no matter how good they may be could ever live up to the fantasy of them that we hold in our minds. On the other hand when I let go of that and simply deal with her how she is, I am less stressed and upset, and so is she.

Another thing that I have adopted from Buddhism is the idea of "The Middle Way". This basically is about eschewing extremes and seeking a path that is sensible and balanced. It is why I consider myself a moderate, in most all things.

The final thing I wish to speak about is the idea of keeping material objects or "possessions" in their proper place. I have learned that while wanting things is all well and good, if one allows those things to become too important then they can throw ones life horribly out of balance. While it is never easy to lose something, especially something that one has invested either a lot of time, or money, or both in, after a reasonable mourning period, it is important to realize that what was lost was a thing, and there will be other things to take its place.

Ultimately, while it is not in my nature to say that the solutions I've found for my life are right for every ones, I have long suspected that people would be a lot better off if they would teach themselves to simply deal with things as they are, rather than trying to force reality to conform to their fantasies. Or as Diane Duane puts it in the marvelous Star Trek novel Spock's World, "Life is about dealing with what is."

Keep The Faith My Brothers and Sisters!