Sunday Interlude and Sermon

Steinbeck wrote a book titled Moveable Feast, and I thought of it, as I provided a feast for the mosquitoes out at Fort Missoula. I was there before dawn one morning to photograph the iris garden. There must be over 200 varieties, a bounty for any flower lover. If you go out there, don't forget your citronella oil. If you go to shoot the iris, take some scissors or hand pruners to nip off dead blooms to clean up your frame.

The sermon for this lord's day comes from the trial of the Grace CEOs. I will not revisit or argue the verdict, but I will point out the common truth once more shown by it. As the world now stands, corporate profits are more important than human lives. People are being murdered everywhere to guarantee American corporations continue to stack up profits.

The bottom line dictated the invasion of Iraq, and it paid off well for the people who invested in it. Cheney and Halliburton made tons of money, as did several other big companies and the rich people who controlled them. A million dead meant more weapons sold, more profits, higher stock returns, and a huge victory for the free market. It is only one example of native people being killed to make the oil beneath their lands available for American industry to suck up.

The republic is dead; we are empire, the largest and mightiest the earth has ever seen. So has it been since the beginning of human history: empires rise and fall. Read Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It is a blue-print of where we stand and where we are going. The decline has already begun, our government is corrupt to the core, we are constantly fighting someone somewhere, mercenaries are doing more of the fighting and the rich get away with murder.

Our religious leaders are the same Pharisees and hypocrites Jesus dealt with in his time. They are greedy, lying tools of men who would rule the world. That's the reason church and state should be separated, because the leaders corrupt each other. Serving your religion requires serving your government, while the government makes superstition rather than reason the law of the land. They make a good team for controlling the masses...and making themselves rich.

Thus, we have people labeling themselves pro-life who will do anything to preserve zygotes, a handful of mindless dividing cells, claiming human life begins at conception, while ignoring the murder of real, thinking, feeling humans worldwide. Does that make sense?

We want the whole world to give us their natural resources, sacrifice their cultures and eat McDonalds, drink Coke or Pespsi, wear Nikes and Levis, watch our movies, buy our music, worship our god, believe our superstitions. Sometimes we kill them for refusing our generous offers.

Aren't those iris something. They were my mother's favorite flower and I inherited her collection, when she died. I doubled the size of the iris beds, over the next four years. That is one thing I do miss from Arkansas. There's a bunch out at Fort Missoula. Go see them before they are gone.

Orwellian Pro-life and Torture

Doublespeak, newspeak, the meaning of words changes rapidly. Pro-life is such a positive sounding term, but so many who preach it are pro-death for people who disagree with them. So many support the war we were lied into, which has caused a million deaths in Iraq, and left four million homeless. Pro-life for fertilized eggs, but not for human beings. So self-righteous, so sure their god is the only god, worshiping mammon in a capitalist temple, while claiming to be so holy.

Lower gas prices are supposed to help incumbents in the election. That explains why they dropped so fast, and shows plainly how easily the price is manipulated. Think oligarchy and plutocracy, instead of democracy, because it is long gone. The republic is also dead, replaced by empire.

Back to the pro-lifers, who don't care how many people are killed in other countries by our military. They don't know, nor care that American corporations, around the world, hire militias to keep the farmers in line and execute serious opposition. Their attitude here is also pro-death.

Anyone, who reads, who hasn't read Orwell's 1984, must do so. Read a prophet as accurate as any who ever lived. Listen to our leaders spouting inane remarks, similar to "war is peace."

Pro-lifers and death go together like McCain and torture. He would never approve it he said, and our government would never do it. But our government did torture. It continues to torture, and McCain supports it. It's enough to make your head spin.

Our old allies are now our enemies, and former enemies are our best allies is a scenario from Orwell. The government propaganda machine always claims we are winning, but everything goes to the war, and the ruling class, leaving little for common folk. Look around...read 1984, or Animal Farm. That's another terrific ditty, more satirical, slightly less grim.

Letting Off Steam

Confession: sometimes I have anger issues. I can't watch faux news, for example. Software updates annoy me, and everybody is doing it. I hated Microsoft back when windows was the only culprit putting my computer out of commission during deadline work. Now, the web browser updates, my Adobe programs update (sometimes good; sometimes not), Apple programs I never use update, security system updates and, of course, windows still updates. All of these updates are capable of damaging other sub-systems, disappearing passwords or directories. I hate'em all. The worst are those that start a countdown to tell you when the system will restart to complete the the installation process.

The rich have become so arrogant as to ridicule the poor. It's one of those let-them-eat-cake moments. Four years ago, I couldn't believe the GOP got away with ridiculing all veterans wounded in the line of duty, with some crass joking at their convention. This year, I couldn't even watch for fear of bursting a blood vessel. The ruling class now laughs at the problems of common people.

Another confession: I can't come close to staying up all night, anymore. In fact, I haven't shut down a club in weeks. I couldn't stay up for the headliners at BVE's CD release party. I tried, but I couldn't. I did arrive in time to catch three lively tunes by Tater Pig, the opening band.


Ok, another thing that pisses me off is the discussion over which side to take with Russia and Georgia. Much more important is accepting that thieves lied us into the Iraq mess, and ending that war ASAP!

A million Iraqi civilians have died, because the people who start wars don't die in them, only the innocent do. Our tax dollars have been used to demolish another nation. The Republic is over; we are empire.

Warning: Political Rant Ahead.

There's another war in the world, as Russia and Georgia go at it. What base foolishness! Wars start tit-for-tat, like fifth grade farting contests and escalate until people are getting killed. Professional soldiers are not killed as often as innocent civilians. The ignorant morons, who start these messes, are never killed along with the innocent civilians.

It's a business. Their jobs depend on building weapons of mass destruction, selling them and using them. Profits go up as people die. This destructive program hides behind mass market memes, such as "free market" and "democracy' and robs the poor to bloat the rich.

Orwell's 1984 didn't arrive exactly on time, but it is definitely with us now. If you haven't read any Orwell, shame on you! It's as pure a prophesy and commentary as any in the Bible. And to quote the Moody Blues: ...the truth is all around if you can but perceive.

We must make ending war our first priority and dismantle the military/industrial complex. We must reverse engineer our culture.

Anybody have a link to that 1984-style, Superbowl Apple ad? Loved that graphic.

Meanwhile, here's something to consider.

Riverbend hasn't blogged in months

Riverbend was a young college girl in Iraq, when the invasion began. Her blog was a first hand report on the devastation that followed and how it affected her life. On October 22, 2007, she reported her family had arrived safely in Damascus, Syria, having given up on their home in Baghdad. She hasn't blogged since then. I hope she's safe.

Riverbend titled her blog Baghdad Burning. Beneath the title was this quote: "...I'll meet you 'round the bend, my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend..." Read it all here.

A collection of writings from the blog, published as Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq, can be found at Amazon and other booksellers.

An ongoing blog with daily updates from Iraq is available here. Warning: this site does not contain the type of sugar-coated pablum our mainstream media is reporting.