Circular Reasoning

If, as Schmookler suggests, there is only one choice once violence is initiated and if violence is the story of history as we know it, then how, given the constraints of populations and resources, can we hope to relieve the current situation?

Populations of humans qua humans are clearly too large for the planet under almost any metric. Humans qua individuals are valued by religions, city-states and other individuals and it is entirely repugnant to consider reducing populations in the short term for this we know as murder and genocide. How do we craft a vision for the future that expresses an inherent love of our own species but marries it to a moderation that allows a real and relatively rapid trend downward in populations? The collapse of economic systems and the visions of freedom that must be abridged first to be fully reborn later are consequences as real as the effects of climae change are and will continue to become.

How than do we hope for resolution to the contraindications of our situation? To what can we appeal? Religion - ineffectual. Philosophy - too left-brain and faddish. Heart? What is it we seek and what is it that we lack that can allow enlightment and true understanding?

Been Wondering About This

So, how come humans arise on the African plainsin the Rift Valley and coffee arises in the hills of South America? This is too perfect a combination to have happened by chance. Were we separated at birth by the rending of an ancient continent? We were evolved for each other and then became lost?

I'll get back to you on this one.

Change of View

Alright, the impeachment of George W. Bush is not a good idea. Its not because he shouldn't be or because he didn't commit impeachable offenses. It is simply because the best course of action is to put energy into a constructive process which will ensure the replacement of this administration with one that is principled and can act within the powers vested by the Constitution.

This is a case where the remedy that screams out to be done is not the best course of action. The Democratic Party is not ready to lead this nation out of the morass the current administration has brought us to. Surely, a properly elected President can appoint qualified individuals where partisan dunces now work, or stop the illegal spying, pull the plug on an unjust war, rip the heart out of anti-environmental policies that have been put in place, undo the tax cuts and the medicare law, etc. All of this is the easy part.

The hard part is having a vision and goals that take us beyond undoing the wrongs and bring us to a new place from which to consider oour actions. The hard part is winning fairly against trumped up issues and smears in elections that are stolen. The hard part is speaking the truth when the truth is not easy to hear. The hard part is finding the strength to deny those individuals with large war chests a nomination if they are business as usual.

It is time to roll sleeves up and help bring about a positive change to bring out the best candidate that can be found. It is time to help craft a message that has the strength to stand against smears and deceptions cooked up by an unprincipled opposition. It is time to stand for more Americans than can be deceived by politics as usual.

And while we work on this positive message and positive vision we can let W twist in the wind with each new entanglement that is uncovered. We'll have to let history do the work of slaying this embarassing little man's reputation and legacy. Surely the riches and comfort that he and his lackeys will continue to have in their lives will be painful to see. I want to see this man flayed in the sun and I want no one to come to Cheney's funeral. Yet these will not pull the dents out of the Constitution nor redress the ills these men have perpetrated on the world. It is far better to get to work to help undo the pain and suffering such poor leaders have wrought.

Pretty Much Says It All

The New York Times editorial out today is about as succinct as it can be about Bush's recent trip to India and Pakistan. What is troubling is that this is all on the radar screen and there is very little noise about it. Our relationship with Pakistan has been troubling for sometime and this just makes it worse.

This adminstration does not want to stop terrorist activity. It wants to appear to stop it, to appear to be standing up to terrorists while consolidating power unto itself under the ruse of fighting terror. The ruse has been extremely successful. Here, we see it all again - an open breach of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty by actions with India coupled with a pat on the back and a smile for Pakistan. A move that helps military/industrial corporations in the US make money while breaking existing law or treaty coupled with a photo op with someone, Musharef in this case, that can make the adminstration appear to be doing all it can to fight terrorism while really doing the opposite.

These actions seem geared exactly to enriching the buddies back home while keeping the heat simmering on the pot so the perpetual "war" can be said to be ongoing. As the nuclear efforts in the world rachet up so will our rights and opportunities as citizens be screwed down from the further developments of these actions.

What will it take for Citizen Kilroy to recognize the graffiti on the wall?

Plenty of Oscars but No Dads

Oscar Night review quote (from a non-pundit): "I heard several winners thank their mothers and some even came with them as 'dates' but I didn't hear anyone thank their Dad."

What's up with that?

More Outrage

The almost-mainstream media (aMSM) reports on the lies that George Bush, Dick Cheney and others of this administration openly present to the public. Publications like The Nation, The New Republic, and Harpers, et al, are willing to call the plays as they are. Meanwhile, the MSM will resort to using the word "lie" only when it has a cover, as in "Ex-Cabinet member claims that President Bush lied ...." The MSM will use the word "misled" or maybe "deceived" but are reluctant to use "lied" as an active past-tense transitive verb.

While I find the MSM's fear to be disappointing at the very least, I am rather appalled at the quietude of the public. It seems that the population is unable to rouse a feeling about the state of things. It remains comatose, bathed in complacency and self-delusion.

The actions of this administration are impeachable and have been so repeatedly. When Lewis Lapham can call for impeachment in the cover story of Harpers magazine, any doubts about the legitimacy of claims of wrongdoing have been called to the floor for reckoning.

Yet, the public remains silent, watching the wreck of the life it has been taught to know and cherish and seems to think will automatically perpetuate itself forever based on some intrinsic goodness. It is true that the ability of the Congress to call this President and his mean-spirited administration out currently remains out of reach. This is because the elected members of the Congress largely view their obligations to the public as secondary to those of the lobbyists and the corporate world. It is not true that this is an inalterable situation.

If the members of Congress would learn from those who employ them that they are to be issued a pink slip, their allegiances would be called into question quickly. We know this because as the 2006 election inches closer, we see ripples in the rank and file Republicans who know a "hot" issue when they see one. They know that the Dubai port control issue is one of percepton, a perception that could cause trouble back home. Suddenly they "stand" against the President, wanting to "investigate" the issue. They know that this will give them a cover back home with the voters so they can remain in power and return to suckle at the money teat back in Washington.

If they were to know that they would not be returning or would have to answer honestly for their record and their actions, it is possible that the Congress might break step with the administration and call this President out.

It perplexes me as a father that people tolerate lies from the highest officials in the land. Countless times I have seen parents become indignant and outraged by the lies their children have told them. Full of anger they admonish, scold, even punish their children in these most poignant of betrayals. Yet, when confronted with the same form of betrayal, not once but repeatedly, not harmlessly but literally lethally to our soldiers, not unintentional but fully premeditated and emotionlessly executed, from their elected officials, they roll over and play dead.

Where is the outrage? Where is the end to the complacency? Where has the desire gone to be in control of our own destiny? Where is the community necessary to a population united in government and purpose?

If we allow a lower standard for our politicians and elected officials and let their hypocrisy run freely over us, what message does this send to those we strive to teach the ways of good citzenship and fealty? What double standard are we perpeuating on our own children? How are we betraying them?

Where is the outrage when these crooks can insinuate themselves between the messages we teach our children and the reality those children see us live? This isn't about political parties, its about trust, the bedrock of any civilized society. In our own it is receding faster than the ice shelves off the coast of Antarctica.

Hail! The Atomic Apples of Doom.

Hail! Atomic Apples of Doom. You came, you built ... a lean-to of trees and a few tarps, you slept in it when the temperature kissed the 0º F mark. And you didn't whine.

Hail! Atomic Apples of Doom. You built fire (or borrowed it), you pulled limbs from trees to protect yourselves, you tested yourselves in the white cold. And you didn't whine.

Hail! Atomic Apples of Doom. You shared your limited food, you respected each other, you helped each other. And you didn't whine.

Hail! Atomic Apples of Doom. You were tired, you were thirsty, you were HUNGRY. And you didn't whine.

Hail! Atomic Apples of Doom. It was my honor to share the lean-to with you for two nights. It was my honor to help you strike the flint and steel for fire. It was my honor to listen to you talk unself-consciously as the night deepened. It was my honor to trek the snowy woods with you, to look out over the wintery landscape with you, to assist you when you needed guidance and make sure no one lagged too far behind. And you didn't whine.

The Atomic Apples of Doom in the 2006 Winter Survival program were:

Nate - ex-officio leader whose attitude was light and positive and which didn't flag even in a cold water dowsing in front of his girlfriend

Bennett - silent but deadly in more ways than one, ex-officio second-in-charge

Jacob - gives as good as he gets and more

Drew - poet, Republican and inveterate burrito lover

Johnny - skin and bones who held his own; he felt the pain of cold others missed which he'll be stronger for

Josh - Dude, shades inside or out, day or night; his approval a must for the others

Zack - one speed and always going easy; two left gloves - no matter; melted nalgene water bottle - oh well!

Hail! Atomic Apples of Doom. You know who you are. You know what you did. Be proud. And you didn't whine. Much.

Thanks for sharing an unique experience. I listened while you talked the adolescent talk of males before sleep. I watched while you walked the adolescent walk of males when the girls were present and when it was just the Apples. I watched you share and support each other. I saw you rib and rough each other up and never going too far. Yeah, you went too far in search of fun and it was stupid but you came back safely.

You were great. Thanks for being yourselves. Thank your parents and community for supporting such an endeavor in the public schools. It may have been bitchin' cold but you have new respect for the cold and better understand it. You were closer to nature - whether you will choose to do so again or not is immaterial. You'll fear it less and understand it more.

And no, you probably never will zip two sleeping bags together for a co-ed winter's night anytime soon. But keep dreaming the dream - its natural on a cold night at any age. Keep dreaming, Atomic Apples, it keeps you young even when you want to be so much older.

Hail!




Home Sweet Home for 2 very cold nights. Hand-hewn, hand-built.







All that was between us, a full moon and the crackling cold night.







Fire?? Maybe?? The flint and steel and tinder = fire?





February, 2006 on the Navy Survival and Endurance Training Range.

No outrage.

With each passing week, the government that leads us is exposed, in yet another incident or maneuver, as arrogant, power-hungry and working against the interests of the citizenry. Yet, there remains no outrage.

Politicians baldly change positions to curry votes and positive media coverage only to sponsor or vote for legislation that is opposite the interest of those who give them their job. They mount strawmen to knock down when it makes them appear to be strong and watchful. They write legislation under deceptive titles or lacking enough merit to be able to stand on its own, instead amending it to an easily passed bill of totally unrelated nature. They perform quid pro quo, minimally disguised, for campaign contributions. Yet, there is no outrage.

Corporations control huge chunks of our activities and they control most of the levers in government, if not directly, through money. Yet there remains no outrage.

The media, deregulated, profit-driven businesses now, dance the tune of their corporate masters. When shown to be biased and lacking ambitions that would give the citizenry the information it needs to make informed decisions, there is no outrage.

The environment, though weakly understood by most individuals is under constant stress and abuse by our sheer numbers and our profit-oriented and self-comfort drugged culture. Most Americans see and feel the devastation but few feel as if anything they do will have much impact. Yet, there remains no outrage.

We see individuals all around us who are unhealthy and ignorant in the cause of that ill health. We look to our medical experts who cannot or will not diagnose our maladies and are willing to give us something, anything, to alleviate our symptoms under the guise of a cure. Acute becomes chronic and there is no outrage.

The original aims of the people who fought to separate this country from the heirarchical monarchy and vested corporatism of two and half centuries ago are daily being smudged out. Yet there is no outrage.

This civilization has already seen its zenith unless there is outrage. Outrage from the citizenry to reconnect with its government and to form a life-view capable of incorporating all the people under it as important members. Outrage sufficient to raise the individual from his comfort induced stupor so he joins his voice with another. Outrage enough to interrupt the cycle of government midterm. Outrage enough to reclaim the direction of a civilization's dreams and make them our own once again.

The world will go on without us. Even if we cripple or destroy its ability to support life as we know it, the earth will continue to spin and orbit the sun even as a lifeless rock until such time as the sun consumes it in its own dying days. We can end our days fighting other races and scrabbling for ever more scarce resources. Or we can forge another way out. We must express outrage enough to wake up our fellow citizens and change what we can change today and lay groundwork for tomorrow.

Life is passing me by - just not the life I'm living.

Life is passing me by - just not the life I am living. I chose to be at home serving as an anchor to my daughter and my wife. I help them spiritually, emotionally, physically each and every day. This is the life I am living.

The life passing me by is that of the working man or woman making an effort toward......what? Certainly we need the myriad businesses out there in order to procure the goods and services of a lifetime. Yet, who in their daily lives is truly contributing to the quality of living for the many billions now occupying our singular 'home'? We seem so caught up in the buzz and bluster of hype, particularly in this country, that we no longer seem to have any grounding as to what life might be. Indeed, it seems that we are completely unhinged except as far as our bodily needs intrude upon our daydreams.

Does this mean that we need to go back to our past to find a defining sense of integrity and a set of values? I think not. We humans seem to do this as a reflex action. A jab of insecurity pangs us and we instantly reach into our psyches for some assurance, something 'real', to guide us. It is close to instinctual in us - perhaps it is the vestige of instinct that lies deep in our gray matter. Yet, it would seem that the very past experience we look to for guidance and value undermines the sense of value we can place in what we do day to day in the present.

In my christmas boxes there is a chipboard package that bears my awkward preteen handwriting of my name on it. Also on that box is a price sticker of 99¢. Within that box is a steel tree stand that disassembles to fit within the flimsy package. The merchant name on that sticker is W. T. Grant. Today, the W.T. Grant stores of my youth are no more. They have long since been replaced by other businesses such as WalMart or Tarrget with altered business models to succeed in our current day.

As a preteen, I wandered through Grants and Zayre and Woolworths stores looking for Christmas presents that I could afford at 50¢ per person. Each store had its own slightly different personality and its own particular scent. My town had 2 Grants stores. If the one downtown was out of something you could always check the one in the shopping center. I once stole something from a Grants store, only to be turned in by my brother. The memory of the store manager, sitting in his 'hidden' office, lecturing me about stealing directly from him, still serves me as the image of the archetypal businessman from the sixties. He wore a brown suit, had a windowless office and his pants hitched up, as he sat behind a metal desk, to reveal skinny ankles. It seemed an impoverished, souless setting, even to a young kid.

Yet those stores and the way we did business with them helped define our lives - not just how we did things but how we thought of things. When you needed a this or a that, you knew which store to get it at. Woolworths had tons of bins that held baubles from the world over, especially Japan. Grants had shelves of stuff including my tree stand from a US manufacturer. Zayre, which was bright and open, had the most complete album selection outside a music store. One knew what store was likely to have what and at what level quality. You went to the shopping center to check out the last 45 rpm offerings. You went to the locally owned and run department store which sponsored childrens' Christmas television programming if you had more to spend and were shopping for Mom or Dad. If you wanted the latest fashion, it would show up at the local apparel merchant's store - maybe. The bright yellow bell bottom pants I wanted desperately for 5th grade were available at the shopping center but never made it to the clothier's downtown - or to my closet for that matter. Yet that world of options and possibilities defined an ordered world view of how things were done and where to procure the needs of a lifetime.

Those stores, some bereft of soul even then but defining markers on the experiencial landscape, are simply gone now. Sunk beneath the waves of time like lengendary Atlantises, they have been swallowed up by newer concerns or quietly closed their doors after a liquidation sale; they are but the dust of memories now. This is what the WalMarts and Home Depots and Targets will all become in some not-too-distant future. These beasts, currently ravishing the economic and political landscapes -defining what we live with and how we procure it, will at some point lay down and die to be replaced by new and more awesome entities. Indeed, these box-stores are but a link in a chain that includes the various department and specialty stores of my youth. They are business models bound to the conditions of the times they occur in. As the conditions alter, so the means of business rise and fall like species of animals across the sweep of time.

In looking to the past I find not an honesty and integrity of a purer past but a continuum of sameness. The Japanese products of my youth were no more or less anything than the Chinese products of the present day. No profound difference lies in our human tendencies across the millenia. The way we express those tendencies changes and we think it profound but what was true about human nature, human desire, human ambition, human suffering ....hasn't changed much at all across perhaps all of recorded history. The conditions of the times have changed as we have leveraged energy and populated and ravaged different environments so we have built business methods to fit the current time. Doing the business of living defines both the consumer and the merchant. We change our behaviors to meet these changes. The forefront of commerce lies in anticipating the change and leveraging this change for wealth and convenience. Yet, the activities, whether with fruits and nuts in the bazaar or intellectual content distributed by electrons over a vast connected computer network, are still the same. The new and shiney in our time is just that - new and shiney in our time. It is not essentially different from the new and shiney of any time.

The world of commerce and business will always be there and will always be about the new and shiney way to make money. I can rejoin the effort at any time. The question remains though, why would I want to?