freedom's just another word.....

If you have been following my somewhat erratic posts, and the comments that they have attracted, you might agree that this particular page is filled with forebodings of gloom and doom.

You're right.

So what?

The Supreme Court ruled today that those gases collectively called 'greenhouse gases' are in fact pollutants and therefore can be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. The 5-4 vote has been called a "rebuke" and an "environmental blow" to the Bush administration.

Big deal. I don't discount the significance of this decision a bit, in a philosophical or procedural sense, but I think that, most likely, not enough good will come of it. This is no more an indictment of the present administration than any of the preceeding ones, this is a problem of military complexity, that has seen only a casual response from most parties concerned.

I take our environment as seriously as the next guy, (I guess that is nothing to brag about), but I have the ugly suspicion that we have already passed the point of no return where the environment is concerned, so, I ask you, the readers, to post your idea or ideas of what the world will be like in fifty or one hundred years.

Need a little help?

Here are a couple of points to ponder:

First: the worlds oceanic ecosystem (defined as both plant and animal life), will be depleted in approximately forty years.

Second: the trend known as global warming has already reached a tipping point, and the climactic conditions that prevail across the planet in 70 to 100 years will differ radically from what we have today. Lands generally north of 45 degrees latitude in the northern hemisphere, (or south of that latitude in the southern), will become the most desirable for agriculture. Lands that are now perpetually frozen will become arable, lands now considered as prime for agriculture will become, in many instances, deserts.

There notions are of course, theories, that may or may not play out. But it is pretty clear to me that the world we live in will change radically over the next few decades. Those things that we take for granted may simply go away. The term terrorism may apply not to senseless acts of random violence, but to acts such as stealing produce from a garden. Energy crisis may not reflect so much on high priced gasoline, but being able to start, and maintain a fire to cook on. If the food chain is severely disrupted, we may all become vegan's in the foreseeable future.

Pine bark salad anyone?

The point that I am trying to make here is that all the institutions in our lives are going to be subject to great changes. It is possible that the term government will lose meaning as life takes on an "every man for himself" tone. Religion may too face the need to adapt or simply go away, (although I tend to doubt the latter assertion).

At this point, having driven you to boredom or sleep, I invite the readers to take a shot at these notions, on as broad or narrow a view as you like. Don't hold back, make a projection for 5 decades into the future.

Whaddaya got to lose?

looking in the mirror

and not liking what I see.

Today, while scanning the news, (that mainly covers middle eastern issues), the thought occurred to me that I tend to dislike the state of Iran and, in an impersonal sort of way, its people. Nothing really wrong with that, as I tend to dislike everybody, but at this point in time, this particular ethnicity seems to stand out, and I devoted a few seconds to the question of why?

Then it occurred to me that out of all the nation/states in the world, Iran is a lot like us. They have one of the most powerful economies in the world, (owing to the abundant supply of light sweet crude deposited there), they have a fairly diverse population that encompasses quite a few 'haves' and 'have-nots', they present themselves to the world as something of an inflamed sphincter bent on having their way and they have a hemorrhoid for a national leader.

Aside from the abundant crude, a lot of people see us in those terms.

For the most part, those who criticize the US or Iran are inconsequential, their voices are heard because we are liberal enough not to smash them to bits, or their opinions tend to justify someone elses, but we, the Americans seem to feel about the Iranians pretty much the same way that they feel about us. We are belligerent towards each other and seem to be bent on being the top dog in the region, (if not the whole world).

OK, so what?

For either of you that hasn't seen the news in the last year or so, the UN is having a bit of a tiff with Iran over its nuclear weapons program. The UN has a perfectly legitimate right to tackle this issue, but the Iranians like to frame it as another swipe by the US, (using its lapdog, the UN - a notion that would be laughable under any other circumstances), towards the Islamic Republic. The US, on the other hand, has a credibility problem, domestically and abroad, when it cites Iran for anything, and the present administration likes to blame Iran for many, many things. Some of these claims may be on the up and up, but who can tell? As the UN attempts to stare down the Iranian government, the Iranians have done something that they excel at, taking hostages. Fifteen British sailors and marines are now being held in Iran, accused of wantonly violating Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf.

Please.

What happens next is anyones guess, but it is my view that one side or the other will have to back down in some way that gives the other bunch of crybabies something to crow about while tensions are allowed to deescalate, a little like the missile crisis of 1962. It is hard to say who is right or wrong on the territorial waters business, I tend to think that the Brits were within their rights to be where they were, but I really don't know for sure.

What needs to be done now is for the most mature of the parties to craft a solution that will allow the other side to crow a little while things cool down. I just don't know which side is the mature one...

tagged

Does that mean that I am it?

If it does, well then shit!

My bud Woozie has tagged me with the Thinking Blogger thingy, with the charge that I tag an additional 5 bloggers. I might, or I might not. There are no additional requirements here, and this thing seems to be spreading across the 'net like a cancer. (Two of my potential nominee's have already been tagged...).

So, without (much) further ado, I nominate these five bloggers for the honor that has been afforded here:


Omar

Leelee

Pug

Gadfly

Enemy of the Republic

These are five bloggers whose ideas I respect, (but don't always agree with), and whose pages are usually worth the mouse-click.


Forgive me friends, I am just sharing the joy here.


Now, on a similar note, while I was working this out, the thought occurred to me that the somewhat liberal requirements of this meme might lend itself to something a bit different, a concept that I have dubbed meme grenade.

I have selected, at random, the following blogs, (I googled variations of +blogger +index), with whom I have had no prior contact:

Indexed

this one looks like it might be fun to look in on from time to time, right on the mark

Sanctum Sanctorum

appears to be a bit of a biting wit

Mighty Blog

this person sports a logo that caught my attention right away. he/she also writes on topics of extreme social relevance. (I confess that I have seen this alias, but not the blog, elsewhere). kudos!

Bufford the Wonder Dog

appears to address issues of some significance to those of us who are the fodder for the actions of corporate stooges...

The Melancholy Lumberjack (Melan'jack)

commentary on the day to day observations of a member of the business oligopoly




There. The meme grenade. Try em, and tell em that The Eccentric Recluse sent you.

more of the same

What is in the news this week is the issue of the firing of eight US Attornies by the GW Bush administration. Now I have to admit that I have little love for lawyers of any stripe, (my first reaction to hearing the news was that it is too bad that we don't behead ousted government officials), but the gist of the story was at first the dismissal of these officials because they did not lend themselves and their good offices to the harrassment and ostracizing of political opponents of the administration.

Frankly, that particular assertion did not surprise me, as that is just the way the game is played these days.

As the story has developed, the Congress is gearing up to hold hearings on the issue, and the White House has said that it will not permit its staffers, including the Attorney General, to testify under oath, invoking "Executive Privilege" in a blatantly Nixonian manner. The President has warned of a constitutional showdown if White House staffers are compelled to appear and testify under oath before the House Committee. The sad thing is that he might win, given the makeup of the Supreme Court.

The only way to avoid this particular conflict is to follow the methods prescribed by the Constitution. A bill of impeachment would allow the US House to investigate and prosecute the case in a very public forum. Failure to testify by any of the staffers would put them in (legal) contempt of Congress, (not the simple disdain that most of us hold), for which they could be removed from office, fined and possibly jailed, at least during the proceedings.

I have not yet decided if this is a genuine abuse of power issue, (or more correctly, if this particular abuse rises far enough above the pale to merit serious attention), or just a way to hobble the administration, but the executive privilege issue really sticks in my craw. I was infuriated by it when Nixon invoked the doctrine, (at the time I credited the origination of the doctrine to him), was sickened when Bill Clinton used it as a lever to move the Congress in a slightly different direction, (procedurally speaking---it gave validity to the notion), and now am again infuriated that the President believes that he serves only himself and his friends.

It is time to put the notion of executive privilege in its place. If the administration won't honor the spirit of the law, then we are left to do what we must.

Stay focused.

What's wrong with this picture?

Let me give you a hint. It is presented in a digital hi-definition format, and will be coming into your homes sometime in 2009.

An article that appeared last week in a Dubai newspaper, (exhausted no doubt by all the hubbub surrounding the reloaction of the Haliburton Corp to that part of the world), reported on a plan, apparently settled and agreed upon by the US Congress, to subsidize, to the tune of 1.5 billion US dollars, the acquisition of set-top boxes to convert the mandated digital broadcast signals of your local TV station to a form that your current (spell that O B S O L E T E) television can recognize.

Thank God that the government is stepping up to forestall the tragic loss of Gomer Pyle, the Beverly Hillbillies, Oprah and Jerry Springer in our lives. Where I ask, would we be without the Congress to look out for us.

I will be quick in noting that the 1.5 billion dollars is approximately equal to the amount cut from education fundng by the current despot, but now that I think of it, it is probably for the best, as people who cannot read need TV to supply the necessary input, so they can make important decisions, like, should we re-elect the guy who got us this dandy digital TV box?

The point that I am making here is that all the gridlock and acrimony that we see is to a significant extent, simply veneer; something akin to the violence one see's on WWF Wresting. Both parties serve the same master, what happens to us is simply a collateral effect, where the crumbs fall and from what end of the loaf are they cut. I am not saying that the will of the voters doesn't matter, but the impact of voter anger is minimal, and for entertainment value as much as anything. If we were to throw the entire government out on its as--, eh, ear, we would see some high quality preening by the new government prior to settling back into the same old routine.

On another related, but not really, note, the good people of Europe are enjoying the fruits of their endeavors in the consumer arena. Cleaner air? Nope. More equitable distribution of wealth? Naaaaaaaaaa. Better medical care? Fuggetaboutit. No friends, the European Union is fighting, tirelessly battling, on behalf of their constituents, to have songs purchased from iTunes to be playable on a wide variety of portable music players. Gaze upon this friends, and know that the standard for twenty-first century civilization has been struck. it is time that we all rise to this level of sophistication.

My Back Pages

I got this in the email a couple of days back from special correspondent JB, (welcome back, BTW). I have watched this about fifty times, and am not tired of it yet...

This is from the concert that came to be known as Bobfest in 1990 or '91, and features some pof my favorite people...

This is not what we thought it would look like.

I am speaking just for myself here, but I am a bit disappointed.

Democrats in the House of Representatives have unveilled a plan to begin withdrawing US troops from Iraq. The timing of the withdrawal would depend in part on certain performance benchmarks on the part of the Iraqi government. Failure to achieve these would accelerate the timetable, but in any case the withdrawal would be completed for the most part by the end of 2008.

I am not a supporter of the war or the president, but that is awfully convenient for the party on the left, as it will require the sitting administration to eat all the sh*t that will come from such a plan, rather than let it carry over for the next administration. And to be blunt, it is almost a foregone conclusion that the troops will be pulled out fairly soon after the next turnover in the executive branch, (no matter who wins), so this plan offers little in the way of a clear advantage over simply waiting for the election. For these reasons, it is likely to be rejected by the president, (no surprise there), and, (more significantly), by the electorate at large.

This is not what we bought at the polls last November. The Patriot Act still stands, the war goes on, corruption goes uninvestigated, and we get a bunch of working-class heroes striking pose after pose on Capitol Hill. I will be the first to admit that I am somewhat impatient when it comes to specific expectations, but this is ridiculous. The Democratic Party is acting as though it is a given that they will hold power in the Congress and pick up the White House. Not a bad guess, but it is not necessarily so. Failure to achieve at least some of what was promised last fall will make the party look like the GOP in disguise.

So, what can we do? Keep the pressure on your elected representatives, no matter what your opinion, hold their feet to the fire, as often as you can. Email is good but printed (or handwritten) missives are better.

Stay focused. Keep the pressure on.

that was the week that was....

The next president of the US may have been picked this week.

I know that this is not an election year, and that there is still a lot of influence to be peddled, integrity to be sold and monies to be collected and deposited in numbered accounts, but things seem to be playing out fairly early this time.

On the GOP side, nobody is really standing out yet, and if anyone actually does escape the mudbath, it may be too late to really get into the race. The party in general is continuing its roadshow of sleaze, today with the conviction of 'Scooter' Libby on charges of perjury and obstruction, as well as with the growing brouha over the dismissal of eight US attorneys, which is being seen by many as being overtly political in nature.

On the Democratic side, Hillary and Barack appear to be neck & neck, with Hillary being something of a boorish uppity b**ch and Barack going along, pointing to himself and saying "I'm not her". John Edwards picked up a bit of momentum courtesy of Ann Coulter, who could find nothing of substance to say about him, (now that really shocks me), so she dismissed him with a casual slur. Time will tell what impact that may have.

So, who will the next president be?

Ya got me on that one, but the many small impressions of each of these people that are formed on a day-to-day basis may be piling up, forming structures that will serve as ramps or barriers later on in the season.

Pay attention. It's better than reruns of South Park or the Simpsons, and it may actually affect you in some significant way.


And, just by way of saying howdy, please welcome special correspondent JB back to the nest after a short leave!