We Remember

At the end of the year, I like to look back and remember some of the people we lost, and to celebrate their lives - especially the ones you may not have heard of.

It was a bad year for cartoons. Tigger, Piglet, Fred Flintstone, Tony the Tiger and the Jolly Green Giant all lost their voices.
Bad year for Star Trek, too. The franchise died, along with the Chief Engineer. So Long, Mr. Doohan.
Bad year for Our Gang. Butch and Porky both bought it.
Bad year for Music. Shirley Horn died. Go find one of her records. Now. Lalo Guerrero, father of Chicano music, died. George Scott, of the Blind Boys of Alabama. Robert Moog, the synthesizer man, who thereby invented 70s music. Skitch Henderson, Tonight Show bandleader. Link Wray, guitarist who inspired many of today's artists. R.L. Burnside, the bluesman. Long John Baldry. Go buy his record, too.

Other notables you may not have heard of:
Will Eisner, the comic book creator of the Spirit, and the graphic novel. The man who pretty much changed comics from Cape-Man Saves the Day to serious stuff.
Peter Foy, the theatrical effects creator. Before they said "You will believe a man can fly", he made two women fly - Mary Martin in Peter Pan, and Sally Field in The Flying Nun. An artist from the days before computer imaging.
Philip Johnson, the architect who popularized the "glass box" skyscraper, thus making sure that every city in the world looked like New York, and vice versa. He redeemed himself in later years.
Dale Messick, comic strip artist, inventer of the first female investigative reporter, Brenda Starr.
Evan Hunter, creator of Ed McBain, the police procedural, and as a result, inspiration of just about everything on TV right now.
Frank Gorshin. 10,000 voices, one of them the one and only Riddler. Sorry, Carrey.
Stan Berenstein. If you have kids, you know about the Berenstein Bears.
Dennis Flanagan, who revitalized Scientific American.
Samuel W. Alderson, inventor of the crash test dummy.
George Atkinson, inventor of the video rental business.
"Hack" Hackworth, America's most decorated veteran at the time of his death.
Gerry Thomas, inventor of the TV dinner.
John Van Hengel, creator of the food bank.
Alexander Yakovlev, key framer of the policies of Glasnost and Peristroika.
Peter F. Drucker, writer of the first "management" book.
Jay Hammond, the former governor R-Alaska, best Republican ever.
Joe Grant, one of the last of Disney's team.

They will be remembered.

The National Loss of Faith

And no, I'm not talking about the secular Christmas nonsense.
I'm talking about the loss of faith in our institutions.

We have become a nation of conspiracy theorists. We have convinced ourselves that every organization around us is secretly trying to screw us around.
Whether you are left or right wing, we have one thing in common - we both think that half of our elected politicians are traitors, to America and to American ideals.
The number one book on the market alleges that the Catholic Church has been running a cover-up since St. Peter was in charge - a cover up that has included over the years everything from Opus Dei to Freemasonry, in a plot that wouldn't have made the cut for an X-Files episode.
Don't get started on JFK. I understand the newest theory implicates everyone except L. Ron Hubbard and E.T. So many groups have been named over the years that the Presidential limo should have looked like Bonnie and Clyde's flivver.

It's no wonder that people are embracing everything from Intelligent Design to UFOlogy. When you believe that your whole life is a fraud, facts become suspect.

Well, folks, here is some old Hick advice.
Secrets are things held by two people, not twenty. The Catholic Church did not keep a secret for 2,000 years. Somebody would have lost their faith and spilled the beans before now. JFK might have been killed by the mafia, but not by the Illuminati, the Cubans, or the Secret Cabal That Has Run The Country Since 1963.
The Democrats are not traitors, they are just idiots trying to get re-elected. The Republicans, ditto. The ACLU is clumsily trying to help, not revive communism.
The world is in the state it's in because of plain old fashioned incompetence, greed, apathy, and ignorance. No secret plan exists to keep us down.

So have yourselves a Merry Little Christmas, and do what you can to make people's lives a little better this season. Don't preach, don't picket. Don't assume that PETA is full of terrorists, conservatives want a dictatorship, or that the guy at the end of the road works for Al-Qaida.
Be safe. Be happy. For one day, anyway.

When is enough enough?

So, what action by the current administration IS too much for the Right?
Is there anything, other than sex with an intern, that the right wing blogs will not explain away, deny, or refuse to talk about?
So far, they have not balked at:
- Bush acknowledging that the reasons he gave for invading Iraq were false,
- Media manipulation galore, from Gannongate, to pay-for-play in this country (remember Armstrong Williams?), to pay-for-play in Iraq.
- Scandals involving DeLay, Abramoff, Plame, Brown, Libby, bridges to nowhere, wiretaps, . . .
- flip-flops on Social Security, troop withdrawls, Supreme Court nominees, . . .
- Bush's inability to move quickly, seen on 9/11 (storybook time), and Katrina (guitar time).
- endless statements on how Iraq is going well - after 4 years, we now have an election most of the participants are calling corrupted . . .
- the abandonment of the chase for Bin Laden; in 2006, the only troops who will be working in force in Afghanistan will be the CANADIANS!
- FEMA
- the Budget
- torture

Meanwhile, most of the accomplishments of the Bush administration have been negative accomplishments.
Terrorists have NOT struck.
. . . at least, Al-Qaida has not struck in this country. Several eco-terrorist groups have successfully eluded the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security. Al-Qaida seems to have spent its time attacking other countries - and have managed to do so despite America's wiretaps, interrogations, and surveillance. Either that, or America just didn't bother warning anyone.
Plus, this also excludes all the attacks made in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe Al-Qaida is lazy, finding it too easy to attack Americans abroad to bother attacking the mainland. So, hats off to America's brave fighting men and women, staked out like Fay before King Kong, with the government hoping that Al-Kong will take the sacrifice and leave them alone.
The country has NOT entered a depression.
. . . although this could be more due to the actions of American businesses rather than the administration. There is no sign that oil companies are hiring, despite the windfalls they got from the government this year.

Merry Christmas.

Where are their medals?

For four years now, American troops have been in constant danger, constant combat. They have been through a hell we can only barely understand. Through it all, as in all wars, there have been moments of bravery, of valor, of heroism.
Why have they not been rewarded?
Why have I not heard, from any source - MSM, government, or blog - of any award for valor given out to a soldier in Iraq?
Has no one in the last four years produced even one act worthy of the Silver Star? The Medal of Honor?

There are several ways in which a country honors its troops. One of them is to reward their bravery. When is the government going to do so for the men and women in Iraq?

Terrorists may be using your cell phone.

The phones of top executives from Canada's Rogers Telecom had been the target of repeated cloning by a group linked to Hezbollah. (Cloning is the duplication of a cellphone's identity by copying its number and encrypted security code.)
Rogers apparently does have a method of detecting unusual patterns of calls (such as you, having made local calls only for years, suddenly calling Syria daily.) However, they are sometimes unwilling to shut off service.
The main reason is that most of the "clones" are of phones belonging to top executives, both of Rogers and of other companies.
“They were using actually a pretty brilliant psychology. Nobody wants to cut off Ted Rogers' phone or any people that are directly under Ted Rogers, so they took their scanners to our building, like our north building, where our senior top, top, top executives are. They took their scanners there and also to Yorkville, where there are a lot of high rollers and like it would be a major PR blunder to shoot first and ask questions later. . . . Nobody wants to shut off Ted. Even if he is calling Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Kuwait.” said a company spokeperson.

Nice.

Thanks to The Toronto Globe and Mail for the information.

The words from Iran.

Question: does calling someone a Holocaust Denier enough to invoke Godwin's Law?
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now trying to become the white supremist poster boy. He has called the Holocaust a myth, and wants the Jews sent back where they came from. He's done everything but shave his head and wear Doc Martins.
The fact that he's doing it is not suprising - he is, after all, an embattled leader in a Mulsim theocracy. Threatening Israel and badmouthing the US comes right after praising Allah in the Iranian campaigner's diary. What's unsettling is that he's doing it with American military forces on two of his borders. One would think he isn't too concerned with invasion.
He may be right. This is the final repercussion of the bad intel/lack of planning that has plagued the Iraq War. Iran, and Syria, are not afraid of the United States right now. They see Uncle Sam as a bungler, vulnerable to a few suicide bombers.
So, now what? Do we ignore him, confirm their beliefs, and get ready for a wave of terrorist attacks? Or do we attack, and commit overworked soldiers to another series of battles?

Where's the Religious Right Now?

While shopping for Christmas presents this year, I came across a set of cards called Guardian Angels. Created by the aptly named Angela McGerr, it is a card drawing oracle designed to help provide you with guidance for your life.
Why hasn't the Religious Right jumped all over this?
For all its nice art and better intentions, this is a tricked up Tarot deck. It is magic in Christian clothing. It includes a book of 100 angels, like Aratron, Guardian Angel of Nature's Magic. I do not believe I am familiar with that name, neither from the Bible nor the Apochripha. Nor have I heard of Och, Guardian Angel of Chrystal Alchemy. I'm sure I would have remembered THAT name. Unless Ms McGerr is claiming divine contact, it is a total invention which she wishes us to believe is a sending of God and a guide for our lives.
It is a lie, and a dangerous one.
Using this set replaces judgement and knowledge of God's plan with a faith in the draw, and the randomness of chance. The unfortunate believer has as much chance of getting a correct answer to his problem than he has of drawing to an inside straight.

Dobson and Robertson are hyping the "de-Christing of Christmas" as the greatest assault against Christianity since the fall of Rome, yet this insidious little game - and all the other similar little angelic oracles - are a greater danger by an order of magnitude. They are an assault on the core beliefs of the religion, not just on the public use of language.
If the Religious Right really cared about the faith, they would be concentrating on getting these sets out of the Christian book stores. To heck with what they call the 25th!

The voice of the Right?

Just in case you were wondering whether Fox News was really the fair and balanced voice of truth and true Americans, . . .
During last month’s street riots in France, Fox News ran a banner during a news segment, that read “Muslim riots.” Billionaire Saudi Prince al-Walid bin Talal didn't like it. He phoned Murdock. He had it changed to "Urban Riots."

That's right folks. While the army's been paying Iraqi reporters to print pro-US stories, al-Walid has been getting anti-Muslim statements off the air. And, seeing as he owns 5.5% of Fox, he didn't even have to pay.

The ACLU - love it or hate it.

Here's some of the love.

And here's some of the hate.
And here.

Much of the ranting against the ACLU appears to be that it pursues lawsuits for people some others don't feel deserve lawsuits, or against people who don't deserve to be sued.

Defender of rights, or too PC? Arguments exist on both sides.

Side-tracked

Why are we all getting so bogged down in trivia?
Terrible things are going on in our world, in our country. The damage from Katrina has not been repaired yet, and we have no idea whether we can afford next year's blows. Bird Flu is on the horizon, terrorists are still on the march, and . . .

And the left is trying to get a Crip off death row. Because he wrote children's books.
Suppose he wrote self-help books, or an autobiography. Would it be ok to execute him then?
The man is a cold-blooded killer, with ties to a group that spans the continent. He needs to feel what the law can impose upon him, and his friends need to see it done.

Meanwhile, the right is frothing at the attack on Christmas. They are pissed that WalMart and Target are selling "holiday trees" instead of Christmas trees. Maybe if they looked at how those trees are made, and by whom, out there in the third world, they might have second thoughts about associating HIS name with them. Ho Ho Ho that, boys and girls.
Anyway, if the Soviet Union, Red China, and militant Islam can't kill Christianity, then Sam Walton's juggernaught won't either.

Meanwhile, the left are objecting to the new Narnia movies, on account of the "Christian" subtext. What, they've got holiday trees in it, or something?
Yes, C.S.Lewis was a Christian apologist, and there are traces of Christian thought in the books, and movie. There are also creatures from Greek myth, Norse myth, and Germanic myth.
Or did you myth the fauns, dwarves, and giants?
Honestly, this is the old Dungeons and Dragons argument again. D+D is satanic because it has devils as adversaries. Narnia is Christian because some of the ideas are Christian.
Well, Lord of the Rings had the same sorts of elements. Go rain on that parade for a while.

Meanwhile, . . . the birds are coming. And so are the hurricanes.

Generalities

The biggest things crushing debate in the US are generalities.
All Muslims are evil. Their "religion of peace" is a sham. They are all anti-American.
Do you believe that? Then why are thousands of American soldiers risking their lives to save them? Why are they taking all this abuse when they could just sweep across Iraq, Iran, and Syria, getting rid of all the terrorists?
All Democrats are moonbats. All Republicans are nazis. All fundamentalists are crazy. The list goes on.

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Agreed, several members of Congress have proven themselves guilty, as have several bloggers. But it doesn't hurt to listen to alternate arguments. Think of it as a test of your cognitive functions. Read what they say, and try to come up with a counter-argument that doesn't contain insults, off-topic references, or circular reasoning.

Oh, and several Muslims don't believe in terrorism. Including, by the way, the families of those being killed by the terrorists - at a greater rate than Americans, right now.

Still loved by the Iraqi

According to a Knight Ridder report, Iraqi newspaper, TV and radio reporters who join the "Baghdad Press Club" -- a group formed by U.S. Army officers last year -- receive as much as $50 per "favorable" article from the United States.
So, we have gone from being greeted by cheers and flowers to having to BUY favorable press.
But we're still number one in their hearts, right?

Lennon

Today is the anniversary of John Lennon's death - an event which shows just how far some people are willing to go for fame.
I wonder if some people in Iraq have learned this lesson?
Another bunch of peace activists have been kidnapped, and their captors demand the release of all prisoners.
What will that accomplish?
The prisoners go free. The hostages die anyway. New prisoners are taken. The wheel turns again.

Merry Christmas to the troops in Iraq.
Merry Christmas to the troops in Afghanistan, a group of people who have been mostly overshadowed by the more (un)popular conflict next door. Their job is just as arduous, just as dangerous.
But their stories are not getting on CNN. Merry Christmas, folks.

Wasted Time

The Bush administration will go down in history for, if nothing else, all the wasted potential.
They've had a firm majority for years now, both in the House and the Senate. They cleaned out the bureaucracy and inserted their own key people.
And for what? What have they really accomplished?
True, the war was a major distraction, but so what? They should have been able to leave the war to the Pentagon and concentrated on domestic issues. That's what the Pentagon is for.
Can you name a major bill or initiative that the Bush government has managed to push through? No Child Left Behind is being left behind. Social Security reform vanished.
For all their talk that they don't need to defend their record, the Bush circle is spending a lot of time defending their record, and not much time sponsoring legislation, bringing it to a vote, and passing it.
The bills they have passed, I've noticed, have been seriously underplayed. The government does not brag about what they've managed to do. They haven't even mentioned it. If they are that sensitive to criticism with a majority, what will they be like with a minority?

Come on, conservatives! Make some noise. Brag a little.
Start by doing something to brag about.

The only Intelligent Design argument you need.

Is right here.

Very funny. Very true.