Whitecaps

A modest proposal: the politics we see are the wave peaks that form when a groundswell is hit by a cross-chop.

For example, in the recent Obama goof, the groundswell is support for gay rights, and the cross-chop is the homophobia of hard-shell Baptists

When these two run against each other, hey presto, wave peaks. Add in strong gusts of bloviating and whitecaps are formed.

Well, So Much For Obama

Obama thinks Danny McClurkin is one of the best musicians in the world. Not Alberta Hunter, or Paul Robeson, or Harry Belafonte, or Aretha Franklin, but ....Danny McClurkin.

So much wrong here, so little time.

I helped elect Mike Lowry as governor of Washington. He not only worshiped at a black Baptist church, he also appointed illiterate church members to government jobs, which, in the fullness of time, they have suitably disgraced.

Once burned, twice shy.

We Are So Doomed

Kim's roommate was watching C-span today. Senators were quizzing an agency head and employees in a parody of incompetence that would have gotten them thrown out of any decent high school classroom. My God, it was like they were on drugs.

Responding to a question from Senator Akaka of Hawaii, the agency head said "Well, the short answer is yes and no...(technobabble) Senator Aloha (technobabble) And then I was where there these Dutch Elms and you know every 17 years (technobabble, unconnected to Dutch Elms). Honestly, just kill me now.

Eventually Mildred changed the channel to motorized tricycles racing in a stream full of water. Normally you wouldn't think a 90-year old woman would be that interested in such a thing, but when you've just seen the alternative, it's almost a relief.

Looney Tunes

This is getting truly pathetic. Bush is going on and on about what he thinks, as if anybody cares.

So he maunders on about missile defenses, as though they actually worked,and tells people of other nations what they should be doing, as though anyone wants to become the next Iraq.

For a while I wondered why he was pushing such obviously false propaganda, and then I realized- he actually believes it. He's bonkers, completely around the bend, and nobody has the courage to say it.

Well, THAT was weird....

When did sexuality become a rock and hard place for politicians? Oh, that's right, about forever ago. Because it's like this universal thing we have to do.

So, who knows, maybe people who can see revolutionary change coming from drugs might have a point. Brain chemistry being, after all, one of the essential elements of healthy living.

Intellectual Bankruptcy

The quickest check on the solvency of the American intellect is a look at the big idea you have not heard discussed during the past sixty years- the creation of a number of large, pluralistic, federalistic nations resembling the US in size as the next step towards a world community of nations.

Individually, the blind men can describe the elephant. Economists can tell you how important internal markets are, and the importance of size when bargaining in world markets. Sociologists can describe how ethnic minorities can be assimilated in secular states. Political scientists can explain how different units of government are appropriate for the local, state, or national tasks of government. Jurists can explain checks and balances, and, on a fair day with a favoring breeze, religious leaders can believe in religious tolerance.

But when have you been asked to envision a United States of Southeast Asia, governed by a Congress and President, with contiguous borders, within which there are no internal tariffs, dealing with the external world as one united entity? That's right- never. Until now.

The reason for this is obvious and simple- American elites would consider the creation of nations similar to our own to be the gravest threat their hegemony could imagine.

Could there be any clearer or more compelling statement of intellectual bankruptcy?

Leviathan

For decades we've feared the advent of the robot who turns against humanity. In our imaginations we've seen robots develop their own non-human intelligence, and cast themselves free of the shackles of our commands.

What is emerging instead is a robot who attacks us because he embodies our collective intelligence, and acts out our 'leaders' sadistic impulses. This robot is prey to our collective irrational fears, and lashes out angrily at those who pose, in reality, no threat to us.

The physical form of the robot consists of databanks, machines that feed them,machines we use to do things that machines need to have done, such as building roads,and ultimately, machines of war that attempt to steal the fuel and raw materials necessary to maintain themselves as machines of war.

You can't blame the machine. It just does what we want it to.

The Lion in Winter

That's Dk (Devil Kitten) who is not waiting for Pa in his kerchief or Ma in her cap, to settle down for a long winter's nap....

Pb (Peebie) was making a wild flight from her Nemesis, Ek, when she realized the Stairway to Heaven was blocked by her other Nemesis, Liddy (shown above). Hence, the rather irritated expression on Pb's face...

Are We There Yet?

According to Bush, a nuclear armed Iran threatens us with WW III. This would apparently happen when the US attacked Iran and Russia or China attacked us, causing us to attack Russia or China, all of which, in Bush's view, would be referable to allowing Iran to assume the same nuclear-armed Islamic status as Pakistan occupies today.

Or does he mean that a war between Iran and Israel would be a world war?

We'll never really know, because Bush is insane.

Just another 15 months, folks, just another 15 months.

Bush Saves The Russians

For a while, the Russians were has-beens, nobodies. Suddenly, they're restored. It seems they can now torment us with a hundred enemies, simply by threatening to share what they know with other countries that might want to make nuclear weapons.

Are we having fun yet?

Misanthropic Mutu

Maybe it's taken a while for new cat Mutu, pictured below, to adjust to the idea that there are other cats in the world. Five months in, it's still hard to get a good picture of her...