Aren't I Clever?

The greatest fear of Liberals is that they will wake up one morning to find jackbooted thugs goose-stepping down Main Street, USA.

The greatest fear of Conservatives is that Liberals will take their jackboots away.

-ADB, December 30, 2006

Rip and Read Weekly Report

Good Day, and welcome to this week's edition of Rip and Read with Walter Wrenchall. This week: Killer Teddy Bears, Teachers, and the First Amendment. Plus A Stolen Bus.



If the player on this site doesn't work, you can also hear Walter by clicking this link: Rip and Read Audio

Look for Walter back again next Week!

Sources:
Killer Teddy Bears
Ritchie Calvin Davis

Christmas Gift Idea

Christmas Giving Idea ... from me to you.



If the player on this site doesn't work, you can also hear the bit by clicking this link: Rip and Read Audio

The Letters From Santa Email (reprint from forwarded crap I receive 6 times a year, but what the hell, it's funny.)

Sorry I've been a little too busy to put Walter up this week (Maybe later today If I'm lucky.) But, in the meantime, I got a touching christmas email from my good friend John. That's John. John J. Jackson. 55 Hollyhill Way, Bumfrig, VT 058000. Enjoy! Send him lettters, tell him how much you enjoyed it.

deer santa:

I wud like a kool toy space ranjur fer Xmas. Iv ben a gud boy all yeer.
Yer Frend,
BiLLy

Dear Billy,
Nice spelling. You're on your way to a career in lawn care. How about I
send
you a frigging book so you can learn to read and write? I'm giving your
older brother the space ranger. At least HE can spell!
Santa

***********************************

Dear Santa,
I have been a good girl all year, and the only thing I ask for is peace
and joy in the world for everybody!
Love,
Sarah

Dear Sarah,
Your parents smoked pot when they had you, didn't they?
Santa

*****************************************
Dear Santa,
I don't know if you can do this, but for Christmas, I'd like for my mommy
and daddy to get back together. Please see what you can do.
Love,
Teddy

Dear Teddy,
Look, your dad's banging the babysitter like a screen door in a hurricane.
Do you think he's gonna give that up to come back to your frigid, fat mom,
who rides his ass constantly? It's time to give up that dream. Let me get
you some nice Legos instead. Maybe you can build yourself a family with
those?
Santa

**********************************************

Dear Santa,
I want a new bike, a Playstation, a train, some G.I. Joes, a dog, a drum
kit, a pony and a tuba.
Love,
Francis

Dear Francis,
Who names their kid "Francis" nowadays? I bet you're gay.
Santa

***************************************************


Dear Santa,
I left milk and cookies for you under the tree, and I left carrots for
your
reindeer outside the back door.
Love,
Susan

Dear Susan,
Milk gives me the shits and carrots make the deer fart in my face when
riding in the sleigh. You want to do me a favor? Two words, Jim Beam.
Santa

*****************************************

Dear Santa,
What do you do the other 364 days of the year? Are you busy making toys?
Your friend,
Thomas

Dear Thomas,
All the toys are made by little kids like you in China Every year I give
them a slice of bread as a Christmas bonus. I have a condo in Vegas, where
I
spend most of my time making low-budget porno films. I unwind by drinking
myself silly and squeezing the asses of cocktail waitresses while losing
money at the craps table.
Santa

P.S.
Tell your mom she got the part

*********************************************************

Dear Santa,
Do you see us when we're sleeping, do you really know when we're awake,
like
in the song?
Love,
Jessica

Dear Jessica,
Are you really that gullible? I'm skipping
your house.
Santa

******************************************

Dear Santa,
I really really want a puppy this year. Please please please PLEASE PLEASE
could I have one?
Timmy

Timmy,
That whiney begging shit may work with your folks, but that crap doesn't
work with me. You're getting an ugly sweater again.
Santa

********************************************

Dearest Santa,
We don't have a chimney in our house, how do you get into our home?
Love,
Marky

Mark,
First, stop calling yourself "Marky", that's why you're getting your ass
kicked at school. Second, you don't live in a house, you live in a
low-rent,
ghetto apartment complex. Third, I get inside your pad just like all the
burglars do, through your bedroom window.
Sweet Dreams,
Santa

That Damned Liberal Media

Yesterday, I received an email from an online acquaintance who is a staunch supporter of President Bush.

The general gist goes like this:

Did you know this?? -

• Did you know that 47 countries' have reestablished their embassies in Iraq ?
• Did you know that the Iraqi government currently employs 12 million Iraqi people?
• Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series o f polio vaccinations?
• Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?

You can read the whole email here: Did You Know?

The kicker of the email, however is the closing paragraphs:

OF COURSE WE DIDN'T KNOW!

WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW?

OUR MEDIA WOULDN'T TELL US!

Instead of reflecting our love for our country, we get photos of flag burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at the presidential motorcades.

Tragically, the lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves two purposes:
1. It is intended to undermine the world's perception of the United States, thus minimizing consequent support, and 2. It is intended to discourage American citizens and keep them off guard.

In response, I tried to envision what the media would be like if we followed the directive to "accentuate the positive".

Here's what I got:

SMITHFEILD- Although the Jones Family Home was burned to the ground last night, all the contents of their tool shed were saved, said Fire Department officials. Garden stakes, tomato cages, and the wheelbarrow came through the blaze unharmed.

"Clearly," said Fire Chief Dalton Duffus, "The saving of the tool shed shows that our policy of defending the outlying buildings before attacking the fire in the main residence is yielding tremendous results."

Yes...I can see how the morning paper would be a more pleasant experience if we followed this advice.


FOOTNOTES:
Incidently, there is an excellent response to the "Did You Know?" email here:
Mid-East Analysis Dot Com.

If you want to read more about how newspaper editors tackled this email, check this story out: Editors Ponder How to Present a Broad Picture of Iraq

Mister, You Really Need to Work On Your Closing Technique

I just opened up My Yahoo and read the headline that Peter Boyle passed away. Coincidently, just before going to be last night, I watched the first half of "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", the X-Files episode for which he won the Emmy.

I've always loved this bittersweet little story of a man who, because he possesses the physic ability to foresee the death of other people is unable to relate to his fellow man or find happiness. It's a strange story, but in an odd way, uplifting. I don't think any other actor would have been able to pull it off. (Great Review Here:http://www.munchkyn.com/xf-rvws/bruckman.html)

It'll be a little sadder to watch the rest of the episode tonight. Thanks for all the laughs, Mr. Boyle.

Your Personal Richness Feedback

I got some really nice feed back on the "Richer Than You Think" link the other day. I wanted to share two of these items with you.

My step-brother, Rene , posted a very thought provoking post on on WherezIt.com. Entitled: "The Importance of Want to our Children" this little piece is well worth reading.

Also, Friend Russell, in the heart of New York City had a good little post on NYCStories in which a trip to Best Buy turns into a long look into the heart of consumerism.

Of course, I am a little dismayed, loyal readers, that in the midst of all of this none of you commented on the fact this THIS WAR PRESIDENT seems to have nothing better to do than take time to make a movie with his DOG.


Speaking of Bush, my dad sent me a link to a very funny (and very tasteless so be careful if you are watching this at work, with young family members or if you have any Christians visiting) movie in which a young couple engages in sexual role playing...THE POLITICAL WAY!! Oooohh Baby!

Rip And Read: The President's Dog Barney

Good Day, and welcome to this week's edition of Rip and Read with Walter Wrenchall. This week: The President's Dog Barney.


See Barney's Holiday Extravaganza by clicking the title- Video link is on the right side of the page.

If the player on this site doesn't work, you can also hear Walter by clicking this link: Rip and Read Audio

Look for Walter back again next Week!

Sources:
Bush's Dog
http://www.whitehouse.gov/holiday/2006/barneycam.html#

Iraq Troops

http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2006/12/iraq_calculator.html

Marie Antoinette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petit_hameau

Richer Than You Think

Here is a sobering link I found over atGreen Mountain Daily, posted by Jack McCullough.

Go to http://www.globalrichlist.com/; choose your national currency on the drop down list; round off your annual salary to the nearest dollar; watch as the calculator tells you how wealthy you are compared to the rest of the world's population.

As with anything, you must take these figures with a grain of salt, still, in the most GENERAL terms, I believe them to be fairly accurate.

The only thing is, I'm not sure if this makes me feel better...or worse.

MORE FUN

If you haven't seen it yet, check out Russell's post today:
http://www.nycstories.blog-city.com/
It's pretty weird and funny, and, well, just plain odd.

Also, old friend Heather gives it to me on HER blog today. Not quite sure what I did to deserve that...well, okay, I know.

Great Quote from T.R.

Yesterday, I quoted Theodore Roosevelt in jest. However, in looking for that quote, I found the following quote...wish I'd had it memorized about two or three years ago:

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else." [emphasis mine]

"Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star", 149
May 7, 1918

There are more great T.R. quotes here:

http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/quotes.htm

and here:

http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com

Alex Ball: Yella Dawgs, Greased Pigs and Political Punditry

I was having a cup of coffee this morning with Powerbloggers Philip Baruth and Neil Jensen plotting the next edition of Audio Dream Theater (yes...I'm sorry, but there IS going to be a next one!) and we did have a moment...brief, though it was, of sympathy for Politicians and Public Figures.

"How maddening must it be", we wondered, "to live in a world were you were NEVER off camera, where there was ALWAYS an open mike?" The stress must be pretty incredible, we thought.

And then we changed the subject.

When I returned to my email, a little later, I found a note from my friend Heather:

Did you really tell a reporter that you would sooner vote for a greased pig if it had been an option?

I vaguely remember talking to some person with a note pad at the Vermont Democratic Victory Party on Election night...and I think I remember saying something about being willing to vote for a pig before I was willing to vote for a republican...but how would somebody in another state know that?

And So I "Googled" it...and sure enough...if you search "Alex Ball" and "Greased Pig" you will find the article.

Wow! Quoted in the Valley News...

I have arrived. I have achieved pundit status. It's been a long climb, and, you know, it is lonely here at the top, but I'll deal with it.

After all, as Teddy Roosevelt said:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles...The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood...who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Yes. Fame. It's a heavy price to pay for being me, but one I am willing to bear.

By the way, have I mentioned that there are now SEVEN blogs that link to this one?

Rip And Read Weekly Report: Bong Hits for Jesus

Good Day, and welcome to this week's edition of Rip and Read with Walter Wrenchall. This week: Bong Hits For Jesus.

If the player on this site doesn't work, you can also hear Walter by clicking this link: Rip and Read Audio

Look for Walter back again next Week!

Sources:
San Jose Mercury News
Supreme Court agrees to consider free-speech case


CNN.com
High court takes "Bong Hits for Jesus" Case.

CBS News
Whitewater: Case Closed September 20, 2000

CNN.com
Ray: Insufficient evidence to prosecute Clintons in Whitewater probe

Farewell to a Friend.

I'm holding off on the Walter Wrenchall piece today because I just wanted to say farewell to Philip Kraus. Philip passed away on October 21, but I only learned of his death this morning.

Some of my friends may have heard me speak of Philip in the past...he was a gentleman of the old school: an elegant and hard living actor with style, poise and grace. They don't make 'em like that anymore. For many years he worked in New York City, doing big market voiceovers and "small" acting jobs on stage, movies and TV. At some point, if you watched TV at all during the last 25 years you would have seen or heard Philip Kraus.

I always looked forward to a day when a recording session with Philip was on the calendar. When he took the mike, we were guaranteed of putting out top notch-work, which always made our clients happy.

In our description of Philip's voice, we wrote "smooth warmth and sophistication" - that was him to a T. He once told me that a director said to him: "Phil, you got a voice that either says Darien, Connecticut or U-boats"...and it was true- Philip's voice could radiate either incredibly effete snob appeal, or the cold hearted aristocratic sneer of a crack submarine skipper. The only thing Philip couldn't do was normal.

Philip was a consummate professional, and took what ever he was doing seriously... it didn't matter if was a national voice-over for a major brand, or a spot for a local theater company.

More than that, a recording session with Philip meant the chance for a great visit with a friend. It was easy to sit, listening in wrapped attention, to Philip's fascinating stories of his days in New York as an actor and voice-over artist. As a younger actor and producer, I got insights into the business from Philip from which I will profit for the rest of my career.

We had fun discussing his passion for aviation and there was also usually a little time to talk about history, and engage in a round of Churchillian quotations.

And of course, there was always a little time left over to talk about our families. Philip knew my fiancee, Bobbi, because her job requires her to travel often. He took a great pleasure in squiring her through the Burlington airport and making sure she was well treated.

Anyway, I will really really miss hearing the sound of Philip's voice. He was a class act, and we won't see his like again.

Here's a collection of outtakes with Philip.

10/27/2006 PHILIP H. KRAUS CHARLOTTE: Philip H. Kraus passed away Oct. 21, 2006. Born May 10, 1949, in Springville, N.Y., he pursued careers in acting, broadcasting and aviation. He eventually relocated to Westport, N.Y., where he met his wife, Liesel. Philip will always be remembered as a loving husband, a brother, an uncle and an aviator. We love you always and forever. Surviving are his wife, Liesel Kraus of Charlotte; brother Keith Roy Kraus and wife Elsa M. Kraus of Clifton Park, N.Y.; sister Loni Jean Kraus of Fulton, Mo.; two nieces Elaine M. Kraus and Dawn M. Rosenthal of Clifton Park. A private family memorial will be held on Oct. 28. A memorial for friends will be held at a later date. Contributions in lieu of flowers can be sent to the Charlotte Library, P.O. Box 120, Charlotte, VT 05445.

James Bond- They Finally Did It.

I love James Bond movies...but, I have to admit, since the end of the cold war, the super spy has really lost his relevance. Nothing, it seems, that they tried really worked to bring Fleming's hero into the modern world.

But Casino Royale....works. Big time. And, interestingly enough, they did it by ditching almost everything we thing of as "Bond". Gone are the gadgets, gone (almost completely) are the one liners. Gone are the great old British character actors.

There are some people who will not like this new Bond. A review, breif and to the point, on Movies.com says simply:

If you're a true bond fan, you will not like this film. It lacks many essential
components to a bond film, such as the traditional opening, the bond theme,
Moneypenny, Q, high tech gadets. And I'm sorry but, you can't have a blond bond.
This has to be the worst bond film yet.

And that is fair warning...but to me, it was those old conventions which were just not working anymore. It was fun to watch Sean Connery hop from bed to bed in the 1960s. (It still is.) But when Pierce Brosnan did it in the 2000s, I found myself thinking: "ugh. He's gonna catch something and die."

There is another thing, too. When Sean Connery or Rodger Moore behaved they way they did, it was easy to overlook...hell, they didn't know any better. But again, through no fault of the actor, when Brosnan did it, there was something really sick about it- not much different from the careless sadism of Grand Theft Auto.

The more light and carefree the movie makers tried to be, the more they tried to inject the sixties flippancy into the modern movies...the more uncomfortable I found them to watch.

This new movie has ditched almost all traces of what made a Connery or Moore film so much fun.

What has arisen in its place as a gritty, ugly kind of reality (or at least, by Bond standards) and a Bond who is all but "soul-less" in his cold, deadly efficiency. Instead of being flippant about it, this new Bond has to deal with his sickness at every turn and make a decision about embracing it or abandoning it. Neither is clearly the correct choice.

In a post 9-11, post Iraq world, where those of us who wear the white hats have had to face up to the fact that we have done unspeakable things in the name of "self-defense" , this new ambiguous Bond is just about the only choice possible.

Oddly enough, the flick is still a lot of fun.

I won't spoil it by giving away the plot (well, there really isn't a plot, but in this movie, it almost doesn't matter) and ... well seen on a big screen, first action sequence following the credits is worth the price of admission AND a big bucket of pop-corn.

Anybody want to go again?

What the --- uh, Heck? Who said What Now?

Good Gracious, I just read Friday's Freyne , did you? It seems that the recent edition of AARP gives Jim Douglas mostly ALL the credit for having gotten the Catamount Healthcare Program through against the impossible odds of Montpelier Partisan Gridlock.

The title of the Article is "Jim Douglas: Putting Health Care Before Politics". He has been recognized with an Impact Award from the Magazine, which puts him in the company of such luminaries as Robert DeNiro, David Hyde-Pierce, and Marlo Thomas *(god...I thought she was dead.)

Now, like Freyne, like many, I had only one reaction to this bit of news: You have GOT to be kidding me!

It was my recollection that Douglas fought very hard to KEEP the law from being one of "the most progressive in the country" and that the running battle for health care reform took more than one session of the Legislature ...thanks to the Governor's resistance.

On Freyne's post there is a comment from a reader, Liane Allen. She writes:

I got a phone call today around 4:30. My husband was in a car accident - in a tiny Acura Integra, which encountered an SUV...

The front of the car went under the SUV.

Think about how you would react as these images run through your mind, if you had no health insurance.

Did you catch your breath?

Good.

Every day, that's the tension felt by families all over this state and this country...

...In one damp moment on a dark road, we came 12 inches from losing everything. We came 12 inches from facing a life of new and terrible choices: food or physical therapy, homelessness or hounding by bill collectors?

And, as Ms. Allen goes on to correctly point out, we have not emerged from the woods yet. The other day, I was talking with a small business owner: "I used to to look at people who had no health insurance and wonder how they did it." [I am paraphrasing, but this is close to exactly what he said.] "Now, I've had to drop my health insurance due to prohibitive payments. Sooner or later, those who are voting to keep their precious tax cuts will feel the bite of this issue too."

We agreed that this is a rising toxic tide: before you know it the ground you thought was high and dry is flooded, and you, too, are swept away...along with the rest of the so-called middle class.

Now, I have to admit a certain affection for "Mos Doug" . When you put him up against the kind of right-wing vipers that infested the halls of Congress until last November, he is exactly the kind of Republican I wish there were more of. ..Someone you can respect on a personal level while vehemently disagreeing with most everything else they put forward. A worthy opponent.

Still, giving Douglas an award for the work that was so clearly done by Gaye Symington, John Tracy and other Democrats is laying it on a BIT thick, don't you think?

A visit to the ARRP site is worth the trip...there's a picture of Jim Douglas sitting in the middle of a heard of cows. I can only assume that the deep, deep piles of bullshit have been photo-shopped out.

Speculations on The Liberal Media

Right-wing journalism. At the Fox Network, it's a business plan. Rupert Murdoch will, I believe, sell what he thinks makes money for his company. This is also the same network that gave us the Simpsons and the X-Files (where, back in the 1990s, the cell phone wielding, blue state dwelling, well manicured looking Mulder and Scully never, ever seemed to venture into the American Heartland without meeting a redneck with no teeth and a demon possession problem.)
But, while Fox charted a course, the rest of the media seems to have followed more or less blindly, more out of instinct and a pathetic need to be popular (this, even while the Right Wing STILL continues to squeeze mileage out of that old canard about the "liberal media").

Yesterday, Neil Jensen at What's the Point linked to an article that describes the phenomenon in almost laughable detail.

In 1994, skillful pseudo-conservative think-tanks generated talking-points which made "midnight basketball" sound like a troubling sop to the blacks. Then, scripted serfs on pseudo-con radio pimped these points to the skies. And here's where the key transaction occurred: members of Edsall's "establishment media" soon began to pimp these points too! At the time, they didn't say that Dems had proposed modest funding in pursuit of a "laudable goal." Instead, they rolled over, put their feet in the air and recited words from Rush Limbaugh's mouth. " Soon, ' midnight basketball' became a liability." Twelve years later, Edsall recalls how "laudable" the idea really was.

What's interesting here is Edsall's reaction to this familiar process. Does he suggest that we stop the "establishment media" from reciting talk radio's points? No! His solution is vastly different! He suggests that Democrats should drop their pursuit of such laudable goals! That way, Rush won't have to come up with his points-and Edsall's colleagues won't have to repeat them! Things will be simpler all around if they'll just give up their proposals!

The point that Mr. Jensen helps to raise is fairly simple: Rather than castigate the Democratic Party for championing "laudable" ( and liberal) goals, why the hell doesn't the mainstream stop babbling RushMush and start telling the story straight?

At the The New Republic, I found an possible answer. In an article entitled Southern Discomfort, Rick Perlstein writes about the book Whistling Past Dixie. This notion about whether to abandon or embrace the South is a fascinating debate in it's own right, but what caught my attention was a paragraph in the article about the Press and the Ugly Epiphany of 1968:

It happened in a moment of trauma. After the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, all the top news executives sent a wire to Mayor Richard J. Daley protesting the way their employees "were repeatedly singled out by policemen and deliberately beaten." Such was their presumption of cultural authority they couldn't imagine how anyone could disagree. Then Mayor Daley went on Walter Cronkite's show and shocked the media establishment by refusing to apologize to the beaten reporters: "Many of them are hippies themselves. They're part of this movement." Polls revealed 60 percent of Americans agreed with Daley. [emphasis mine]For the press, it triggered a dark night of the soul. In an enormously influential column, the pundit Joseph Kraft, shaken, wrote, "Mayor Daley and his supporters have a point. Most of us in what is called the communication field are not rooted in the great mass of ordinary Americans--in Middle America."

That air of alienation--that helpless feeling that we have no idea what's going on out there--has structured elite discourse about the rest of the country ever since. A set of constructs about what "the great mass of ordinary Americans" supposedly believes--much more conservative things than any media elitist would believe, basically--became reified. Pundits like Kraft--a social class that spends much of their time among people like themselves, inside the Beltway--learned to bend over backward to be fair, lest they advertise their own alienation from everyone else. On subjects that chafed them--say, the relevance of certain ugly folkways of the South in electoral politics--they just had to bend harder. Or ignore the matter altogether.

It can produce in today's TV talking head a twisted kind of neurosis: an instinctual distrust of the political appeal of anything that can be categorized as liberal, even in defiance of the actual data.

That is as plausible an explanation as any I've heard.

In an interesting footnote, by the way, the "Can We Abandon The South" debate seems to be creating a very interesting set of allies.

Centrist Democrat, New Donkey, writes:

In the end, I'm with Howard Dean: In this closely divided national electorate in which red states still outnumber blue states, Democrats should pursue a 50-state strategy with a common progressive message, tolerating some regional differences, and let individual candidates, especially those running for president, target their resources and appeals as opportunities dictate.

Now, to think that I would see the day (even if it only lasts a second) when Ed Kilgore AND the good folks over at Green Mountain Daily would agree on ANYTHING, let alone "fiddy state" Dean ... well...that's just interesting!

Cat Killing B@st*rd Rules Out Run for Presidency

ONCE again, the so-called Liberal Media (HA!) get the story wrong. On Wednesday, ABC picked up a story from Reuters announcing that former Senate Majority Leader Bill (pphhaaat-Uie!) Frist will not seek the Presidency in 2008 after all.

"In the Bible, God tells us for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close. I do not intend to run for president in 2008," quoth the evil Dr. Frist.

The article went on to speculate about some of the reasons why First may have chosen to step from the spotlight.

Some hold him partly responsible for the "Thumpin" the Republicans took in the Midterm Elections this November.

Others, according to the article, thought it irresponsible of this doctor to make a diagnosis in the Terry Schiavo case based on an upclose and personal examination of...wait for it... a video tape. ("I'm not a medical patient, but I play one on TV.")

And, of course, the media mentions some fishy stock dealings that raised a few eyebrows.

But nowhere, NOWHERE does the so called mainstream media article mention the fact that, as a medical student, Senator Doctor Frist admitted adopting PET CATS from the local animal shelter and dissecting them in his apartment...2 FREAKING PAGES on ABC and not one mention of those poor, eviscerated little kitties.

Don't believe me? Look it up. http://www.upi.com/archive/view.php?archive=1&StoryID=20021231-071056-3546r

(By the way, did you know that John Douglas, who has worked as an FBI Profiler, is noted for his theory that serial killers exhibit what he calls "the homicidal triad" of early warning signs? These include: bed-wetting, fire setting, and cruelty to animals.

Kinda makes me think twice about letting this heart surgeon anywhere NEAR a knife...

But the damn Republicans chose to make this man their standard bearer...says a lot, huh?)

At any rate, Dr. Friendly was also quoted as saying that "In the short term, I will resume my regular medical mission trips as a doctor around the world to serve those in poverty, in famine, and in civil war".


Great. Lock Up your Cats. The former majority leader is coming to town.

Liberal Media MY BUTT!

Fluffy, Izzy and Buffy join me in condemning this gross oversight on behalf of the mainstream media.

Animal Crackers

Following the Thanksgiving break, I had a really difficult time getting back into the habit of writing my blog. What would I write about? The things I kept turning over in my mind seemed either done to death, or overly narcissistic, or simply comments on blogs which are commenting on other blogs which are focused on news articles which talk about blogs.

Then, today, like an answer to a prayer, came a RASH of really cool animal stories.

First, there is the Giant Fish, Dunkleosteus terrelli, which grew to over 30 feet long (longer than my house!) and packed one of the fiercest bites in history. However, like Moderate Republicans, the species is extinct, and so, while interesting, no longer relevant.

But that (gosh, I love hyperlinks) lead me to a story about Sea Lions Attacking people from California. It is postulated that these animals MAY have been driven insane by Toxic algae resulting from agricultural runoff and various other sources of pollution. What's funny to me is that, if you search the topic on Google news, most of the headlines are some variation on the following theme: Attacks by sea lions challenge animal's cute, cuddly image Sounds to me like the main stream media thinks that the big seals don't need pollution control, they need a better advertising agency.

(Actually, As I re-read this paragraph the phrase "Attacking People from California" jumps out at me and I think to myself: "Well duh! Of course they are attacking people from California, who the hell wouldn't?" But then, I'm East Coast born and bred.)

Last but not least, REALLY good news from Florida...several emus and some pets have been eaten. WHY is this good news? Because for the first time in a LONG time nobody is pointing a finger at the Alligator. Instead, the state's animal, the Florida Panther is being blamed. And that means that there are finaly enough panthers out there to start getting revenge on the Damn Yankees who have stolen their home state!

According to the Washington Post, 20 years ago, there were as few as 30 Florida Panthers in existence. Now, there are almost 100, according to some sources. Which still, according to www.naplesnews.com , leaves the Florida cat as "one of the most endangered [species] on the planet."

A few weeks ago, I posted about Katherine Harris, and named her as one of the reasons I REFUSED to return to my native land under any circumstances.

Well, here are OTHER reasons why just reading about my beloved home state gives me high blood pressure. At a South Florida forum, called to educate people about how to live with the Florida Panther, the following comments were heard:

"It's my property, not the panther's property," said Mildred Mercado of Golden Gate Estates. "I paid for it. They didn't pay for it."
One of the written questions that was read aloud referred to the Florida panther as a "government-sponsored lethal animal."

Instead, Floridians have expressed approval, in spades for a program of road widening and continued building which will leave, not a new subdivision, but a new TOWN in it's wake.

Now, I know that, just like the Republican Responce to fires a few years back, at least ONE of the Bush Brothers will weigh in with some terrific solution like....oh, I don't know, a tax rebate for every fifty thousand dollar Panther Coat purchased....but as for me....I'm about ready to send those so-called Floridians some seals!

Rip and Read Monday Report ( filed-late)

Good Day, and welcome to this week's edition of Rip and Read with Walter Wrenchall. This week: The Case of the First Purse.

Rip and Read apologizes for the Broken Link earlier today and invites our loyal visitors to Try It Nooow!


If the player on this site doesn't work, you can also hear Walter by clicking this link: Rip and Read Audio

Look for Walter back again next Monday!

Sources:
Allies Withdraw
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061128/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqmilitarybritain_061128005857

Snatched Purse
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/11/21/bush.purse/index.html

Bush Thanksgiving- A Blast from the (re)Past

Ah, Thanksgiving was yesterday, but my Turkey is in the oven today. Here's another blast from 2002, A George Bush Thanksgiving. You know what I'm thankful for? I'm thankful that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are going to help drown out this kind of crap for the next two years.



If the player on this site doesn't work, you can also hear the bit by clicking this link: Rip and Read Audio

Look for Walter Wrenchall back again next Monday!

Rip and Read Monday Report (late)

Good Day, and welcome to this week's edition of Rip and Read with Walter Wrenchall. This week: A New Plan for Peace.

Sorry the Monday Report is a little late this week...I've been having fun over at Vermont Daily Briefing producing a little political satire with Philip Baruth...check it out.



If the player on this site doesn't work, you can also hear Walter by clicking this link: Rip and Read Audio

Look for Walter back again next Monday!

Sources:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/
news/local/states/california/northern_california/16054846.htm

http://www.globalorgasm.org

The Gingerbread Nazis are here:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2668416

Smokey Resigns- A Blast from the Past.

Well, nothing much to post about today, so I figured I'd pull this one out from the archives. This one goes back to 2002 when President Bush declared a War on Fire.

From the LA Times:

KERNVILLE, Calif. -- As flames leaped across the West this summer, so did the hyperbole. If fires weren't devastating, they were horrific or catastrophic. Colorado's governor at one point declared his state ablaze. Television sets blared the peril to California's groves of giant sequoias.

In August, President Bush tramped through the charred landscape of a fire that had raged across southern Oregon and Northern California and declared the sight a "crying shame."

Of course, lest you think that the President was truly awash in grief, remember what the Republican response was.

From the LA Times again:

At the site of a 500,000 -- acre fire in southern Oregon, Bush lamented the consequences of "bad forest policy," and called for an emergency program to increase logging and thinning in federal forests.

Backed by the White House, legislation that would curtail legal challenges to future logging is now pending in Congress.

What's funny about this piece is that, if I'd known in 2002 what I know now, I might have had some other administration official out in the forest!

If the player on this site doesn't work, you can also hear this clip by clicking this link: Rip and Read Audio

Look For Walter Wrenchall on Rip and Read every Monday.

Sources:
The LA Times article was origionally written on 10/27/02

I found it posted at:
http://www.saveamericasforests.org/congress/Fire/CalFireSciSayGood.htm

After the Party

Well, this is all Democratic Party crap this morning, so you can skip it unless you are REALLY interested. After all, the Democrats control Congress and can work more effectively against the President.

Still....

James Carvell seems to have flipped his lid or is working for someone who has flipped her lid. Perhaps this is all a "move" on their part... to get their claws on party leadership.
(See Green Mountain Daily for links, insights, and just to see the pure spleen of the blog-o-crats...I have to admit, Carvell as Gollum is perfect! Why should I visit Commandant Kos' site when I can get intelligent, and some times eerily spot on, uberliberalism right here in the mountains of home?)

But after ALL of the major Democratic Players worked to smooth party feathers after Carvell's post election day dirty-bomb, (Hell, even the Conservative Democratic Blog, New Donkey basically told the Ragin' Cajun to shut up) Carvell came out talking TRASH AGAIN.

Well, yesterday, the AP came out with an article about Dean's response. And yes, the Governor Whomped Butt.

Dean was undetured by the Washington criticism.
"We are going to do the 50-state strategy for the next 150 years so we can be the dominant party power in this country again," he said. "You can't be the powerful party in this country who controls the government unless you are willing to let the people control you. And the only way you can do that is ask everybody for their vote, understand everybody is our boss even if they vote for you or not."

Well, I have to admit, I can't always figure the Good Doctor...however, it's pretty clear that his strategy WORKS. It's also pretty clear that, in many ways, he has picked up on that fighting "never take it laying down" spirit that James Carvell did more than anyone else to infuse back into the Democrats after the Reagan Revolution.

So...I add my tiny little blogger voice to the cacophony of noise: James! Shut UP!

The Subversive Penguin Agenda

A day or two ago, our friends over at NYCStories posted a story entitled “Happy Feet, Happy Movie”. A glowing review of the new film, Happy Feet, relates the plot line and tells us:

Happy feet is the story of Mumble a penguin who isn't able to learn to sing his lovesong, and thus he is a misfit in Emperor Penguin society … If this all sounds a bit like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, it is. The difference, however, is in the twist on the story that speaks to the discussion of the old school religious ways vs. more youthful and liberal ways, including hints of the same sex marriage issue going on in society today. (Not to worry America, Mumble is straight and likes a girl.) Mumble is shamed and run out of town by the essentially fanatical religious penguins who make up the old guard and rely on blind faith to lead them out of the current crisis that the penguins are having with their food supply. When they see Mumble's differences, they blame the lack of fish on Mumble's dancing skills and chase him off.

NYCStories concludes their review with the following thought:

Happy Feet is a fun movie, and will do well. I am interested to see if the
religious right picks up on the barely hidden meaning in the movie, and if they
decide to protest what is really one of the cutest movies of the year.

Wow. A subversive PENGUIN movie? Who would have thunk? We were still reeling (and having a lot of fun with) this idea, when we opened up our news page this morning and found this item from the AP Wire:

Gay penguin book shakes up Ill. School

Holy Cow. It’s not a subversive Penguin movie, it’s a whole subversive Penguin MOVEMENT!

From the AP story:

SHILOH, Ill. - A picture book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin is
getting a chilly reception among some parents who worry about the book's
availability to children — and the reluctance of school administrators to
restrict access to it.

The payoff, however, comes a little further down the page when a disturbed mother (you can read that remark anyway you like!) recounts how she and her daughter discovered the book:

Lilly Del Pinto thought the book looked charming when her 5-year-old daughter
brought it home in September. Del Pinto said she was halfway through reading it
to her daughter "when the zookeeper said the two penguins must be in love."

"That's when I ended the story," she said.

You go lady. It’s a horrible conspiracy. I’ll be the French are behind it all.

As for us, we’ll be eating scrambled Penguin eggs for breakfast.

We had to destroy the embryo in order to save it.

Sources:
AP Story
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061117/ap_on_re_us/gay_penguins_book_flap_6

NYC Stories:
http://nycstories.blog-city.com/happy_feet_happy_movie.htm

Blogger's Weekend

Blogger's Weekend
Caption this Photo!

Another Post Election Gloat

At least one more bit of post-election gloating this week. In the Palm Beach Post we found this story which we relate in our own words:

It seems that, like General Custer, Katherine Harris, everyone's favorite vote shredding former Florida Secretary of State and U.S. Senate hopeful, had no inkling of defeat until the very end. Harris claimed that, despite loosing to Bill Nelson by 25% of the vote, it never occurred to her that she would be trounced. Having failed to follow through on her threat to spend as much as 10 million dollars of her own money to win the seat, (she, in fact, spent none), Harris complained that a lack of money and a liberal media kept her from getting her message across.

Still, she is quoted in the paper as saying she had no regrets. "I really believe that this was exactly where I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to do."

If she means loosing, then this blogger says: AMEN to that, sister. AMEN.

PS- If you really want a close look back at this hag (and want to know one reason why I don't return to my native state of Florida, despite my abiding love of Alligators, Oranges, and Scrub Land) read Harris's Bio on Wikipedia. Warning: it's as long as your arm with more twists than a corkscrew.

Rip and Read Monday Report

Good Day, and welcome to this week's edition of Rip and Read with Walter Wrenchall. This week: Sex Ed for Pandas in Bankock.



If the player on this site doesn't work, you can also hear Walter by clicking this link: Rip and Read Audio

Look for Walter back again next Monday!

Read And Be Prepared to Discuss

I spent most of my "blog" time this week reading Green Mountain Daily, and commenting over there. However, there were a couple of items from the New Republic that caught my eye.

The first was a great quote from the editorial staff:

A lot of things have come crashing down with this election. One of them is
the absurd cultural prestige enjoyed by President Bush and his supporters. Since
2000, they have continuously bludgeoned their critics with the notion that the
only authentic Americans are those living in the red states. Democratic voters
have been endlessly told that they are nothing more than a tiny, alien coastal remnant, and many of them started to believe it.

Well, it's hokum. Bush and his vision for the country have been before the voters four times now. Twice (in 2002 and 2004) a narrow majority of voters supported him; once (in 2000) a narrow majority rejected him; and now a substantial majority has rejected him. Bush is not the incarnation of the popular will, and his critics are not anti-American freaks. [emphasis added]

-from Rejoice by the Editors of The New Republic.

The other is an article in TNR called Freakoutonomics. It is a more in-deapth look at how the Clinton economic team is revisiting it's basic assumptions in the face of the Bush Economy. During the Clinton years, leaders such as Robert Rubin, secratary of the Treasury, won a battle against more traditional liberals in the administration. Liberals, like Robert Reich, wanted to see the government engage in "massive public investment". Moderates like Rubin wanted to put the focus on "economic growth" and this meant using the money to reduce the deficit rather than engage in social policy.

In some ways, the legacy of this battle is related to the bitter struggle between the "netroots" and the likes of the DLC, which I've mentioned before, and which has been keeping me entertained over at Green Mountain Daily, all weekend.

Put simply, Rubin's can be summerized by this quote from TNR:

If workers grow more productive, logic suggests, they're making more money for
their employers, which means businesses will find it profitable to hire more of
them. The more workers get hired, the more businesses have to bid up their price
to hire them, which means that their wages will rise.

During the Clinton years, this worked like a charm. I can attest to the fact that, as a producer of radio advertising, I was actually being asked to produce "help wanted" ads. Before the Clinton boom, no employer in their right mind would have dreamed of spending more than the price of a newspaper classified to promote a job opening. At the end of the 1990s, local employers were spending thousands of dollars to create advertising campaigns to attract "unskilled" workers.

However, the hallmark of the Bush Economic "Boom" is that workers are not benefiting from the "rising tide that raises all boats". And they expressed that (I think) pretty emphatically last Tuesday.

The failure of the "rising tide" is, according to the New Republic, causing some of the Clinton faithful to revisit their basic assumptions:

What's happening is very simple: The economy is growing smartly, but,
essentially, all the gains are going to the rich. It is almost a dystopian
Marxist vision come to life. Corporate profits have soared, incomes at the very
top have shot through the stratosphere, and, yet, the vast majority of Americans
have not seen their living standards rise at all. This development does not
offer much of an intellectual challenge to either the right (which is not
particularly troubled) or the left (which is not particularly surprised). But
the center is both troubled and surprised. And, for the Rubinites, figuring out
just why this is happening, and what to do about it, has begun to unravel their
confidence in the moderate remedies that not long ago seemed
unassailable.

The article leads to the following final paragraph:

Since the outset of the Clinton administration...Democrats have fought against the most plutocratic and fiscally irresponsible Republican plans, but they have done so from a standpoint of resolute centrism. They had strong confidence in an economic model that was, at its core, conservative: unfettered free trade, fiscal restraint. They believed these ideas would benefit all Americans, and they did. But something has changed in the way the U.S. economy works. And, even if it's not yet entirely clear what has happened or how we can best address it, the intellectual balance of power in Democratic circles is already shifting. Today, all the confidence is on the populist side, and it is the centrists who aren't quite sure what to make of the world around them.

And that is probably the most bewildering thing for me, and the most frightening. Since I was born (during the Nixon Administration) I have watched a Democratic Party on the defensive. With the exceptions of 1974 (the Watergate Off-Year Election) and 1976 (when Jimmy Carter, again, as a result of Watergate, became President) the Clinton years were the only bright spot. At the time, I beleived it was because the Democratic Leadership Council had wrested control from the fringes of the party and returned to the common-sense mainstream politics that most Americans could and would support.

To me, "Slow Ahead" was much better better policy for America than following the New Left into defeat, while the heirs of Reagan wrapped up the whole ball of wax and took it home.

But now, it seems that I find myself back in the 1970s again, faced with a rotten choice.

On one hand there is Howard Zinn, presenting a dark vision of America as Facist Run Prison. But, following the "coming revolt of the guards" we will all move forward to enjoy .... what? Leftists are long on protest, but pretty damn short on vision. All I can see, unimaginative as it is, is a bright, post-guard future where we all get to wear the same Mao Suits. Sorry. Not for me.


But on the other hand, there is Ronald Reagan's "Morning In America"- now all but completely brought to life by the Bush Administration. Here, you wake up to find that all the wealth has been transfered to the Richest One Percent, and that wealth is being used to consolidate control over the media (yes, even the internet), the government, and the military, and that you ARE in the facist run prison that Zinn warned you about.

So, I've been wasting my time (and everybody else's ) over at Green Mountain Daily...hoping against hope that there might be a little life left yet in that Third Way that Clinton evoked.

I gotta admit though, that today, it ain't looking so good!

Back To Basics

Well, it is showing signs of starting: true to form, we Democrats seem about ready to start assembling for the usual circular firing squad. We do this often, and, to some extent, it is natural. While Republican Radicals take it on Faith, we Democrats, as a whole, tend to think and to analyze. As a result, while we all reach the same broad conclusions, we each come to believe that we, and our intellectual allies, have the most finely nuanced version of "the Truth" and, that those who don't possess the same intricate insight are just as doomed to failure as our benighted Republican neighbors.

In other words, we spend a lot of time arguing violently with each other about how many Liberals can dance on the head of a pin.


And, if you trip lightly through the blogosphere this morning, you can see the signs for yourself. Philip Baruth, in Vermont Daily Briefing, rides dramatically to the "Rescue" of Howard Dean, the Party Chairman sprung from the self-named "Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party". I don't begrudge the Governor a little "crowing" about his 50 State Strategy. And I think,(despite my personal doubts about the "DWOTDP") that this "No State Left Behind" policy, as it has been dubbed, worked like a charm.

At the same time, the good folks over at the Democratic Leadership Council, have posted that:

This is a victory for the vital center of American politics over the extremes. In pursuing the Bush-Rove formula over the last six years, Republicans have deliberately abandoned the political center, and invited Democrats to occupy it. If you look at the victorious Democratic candidates in "red" and "purple" states and districts, it's clear that they did. And while Democrats benefited from an energized party base, the key to the victory was in the contested center of the electorate, among moderates, independents, middle-class voters, and suburbanites. These voters could represent an expanded Democratic base, and an enduring progressive majority, if Democrats use their new power wisely.

In defense of their position, the DLC points out that Joe Lieberman, running as an independent, kicked the crap out of the challenger who knocked Joe out in the Democratic primary. Ned Lamont won the Democratic nomination by motivating the "democratic wing of the democratic party", yet the voters of Connecticut as a whole said "NO" and chose the more conservative (yet still Democratic, as it turns out, Lieberman) The implication presumably is that, like Dean, while this wing won in cyberspace, it loses in the real world of a general election.

It seems to me that we must, as a party, take the time between now and the New Year to find out where our BASIC COMMON INTERESTS are, and fight, hard, for those. When he re-forged our modern Democratic Party, Franklin Delano Roosevelt managed to unite disparate wings into a unified center- it is time to look at moving in that direction again.

What are those basic interests?

• Social Security


• A Vital Middle Class


• A Decent Minimum Wage


• A Less Reckless Military Strategy


• Rebuilding Our International Relationships


• A balanced Budget and a Healthy Government

There are even more things we, as Democrats, can agree on. But this is certainly a start to the list.

It is time to dig down to the bedrock of what makes us Democrats and fight on those lines. I don't think I'm engaging in hyperbole when I say that the future of the nation is dependent on our success in finding common ground.

Pretty Flowers

Now that the political season is over, at least for the moment, I thought that it would be worth taking a moment to reflect on some of the more important things in life. It seems to me that, often, we take the good, simple things for granted. Like a vase of flowers, for ex----

SPECIAL REPORT SPECIAL REPORT SPECIAL REPORT SPECIAL REPORT

We interrupt this blog with a Special Report

Sources:
Losses on ballot measures jolt religious
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061108/ap_on_el_st_lo/eln_ballot_measures_15

Woman bitten by snake at church dies
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/15947481.htm

If you can not access this special report hear it at:
http://www.shadowprod.com/alexspage/audio/rip_special_061108.mp3

We now return you to our regular blog.

SPECIAL REPORT SPECIAL REPORT SPECIAL REPORT

--- And that's why I think we should ALL take a moment to smell the pretty flowers. Thanks for listening.

It's A Walter Wrenchall Wednesday.

Good Day, and welcome to this week's edition of Rip and Read with Walter Wrenchall. This week: Chinese Contraceptives and an unprofessional swipe at the Vice President.



If the player on this site doesn't work, you can also hear Walter by clicking this link: Rip and Read Audio

Look for Walter back again next Monday!

Election Night- I Feel Lucky

So ends the first campaign in which I actually took part as more than a simple voter. Last winter, I decided that, after years of watching from the sidelines, this would be the year that I would volunteer and put my hours (since I don't have much money) where my mouth is.

And so I volunteered for the Welch campaign, and, as we now know, Peter Welch will be the first Democrat to represent Vermont in the House since the late 50s! (That, according to VPR. And of course, as a socialist independent, Bernie doesn't count!)

The most exciting thing about this campaign, however, has been learning (despite the 27 years that I've lived in this state) how lucky we are to live in Vermont.
This campaign has shown me, once again, how democracy really does work best in a small place. In Vermont, I got to meet ALL the candidates for statewide office, and make up my own mind about them, despite the media bombardment to which we, like the rest of the nation, were subjected. I spent the day as a side-checker for the Democrats at one of the polling places, and when my shift was over, got a chance to see Scudder Parker, Democrat for Governor, working for his votes the hard way- one hand at a time. But, that's the Vermont way.

At the end of the night, I found my way to the Democratic Party's Victory Party. In that room, this simple volunteer found himself rubbing elbows with United States Senators, former Governors, and a host of other "newsmakers". I have to admit, it was a lot of fun, and at the same time, I kept wondering how much money it would have cost me to be in similar rooms around the nation. I was proud to live in Vermont, where you can earn your place by simply volunteering your time.

Adding Links - Making Friends

The great thing about having a lot of links on your blog, or your website, is that it makes you look like you've got a lot of friends. Having lots of friends, with lots of links, is a great way to make yourself feel important.

So...it is with great pleasure that I add another link to my blogroll. Today, I welcome Heather, an old friend from grade school. Heather brings a individual outlook to life by filtering things through her unique sense of humor

I've always enjoyed Heather's sense of humor. Particularly when, in 5th grade, she poured water on the sled run, let it freeze, and allowed me to go shooting over a 50 foot embankment at the bottom of the hill. Oh yes. A fascinating sense of humor, Heather has...

So, if the spirit moves you, check out Gourmet Knitting Disaster and enjoy the wry wit of this member of underpaid lower management as she spills coffee, balances on the bureau at 3:00 am, or spends the day with a chicken foot tied to her hair. It's worth the trip.

And, even if you don't go, at least I know that I have friends...because I have links!

Lost And Adrift

Just casting a glance over the AP Wire on My Yahoo page and saw this headline that I'd overlooked earlier: Why do so few people vote in the U.S.?

The article gives all the usual reasons, voter disgust with negative campaigning, voter disillusion with politics in general (taking on a quick tour through Nixon, Clinton, and W's non-existent WMDs).

But to me, the real gold was near the bottom of the article:

Most broadly, the poll found that non-voters are not just disconnected from politics, but also from their communities. Non-voters were less likely to trust others, to have a strong support network of friends and family or to know their neighbors than regular voters were.

and the article quotes Curtis Gans, from the Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University:

"We've had the fragmenting and atomization of our society," Gans said, driven by the 500-channel TV culture, the interstate, strip malls, abandonment of farms and the rise of the Internet. "All of those things have undermined community."

I've been trying to convince a friend of mine who's been feeling a little rootless and a little lonely to volunteer for some public cause: a soup kitchen, a political campaign. She mentioned that she wasn't convinced that it would be "worth it" (I think she was talking mostly about volunteering for politics, not the soup kitchen.) I think that, just by being able to sink a few roots into the soil in which you live, you begin to build community, and that is a good thing no matter who wins or looses an election.

War Games

War games conducted by top level American Officials in 1999 revealed that, even with as many as 400,000 troops involved, American intervention in Iraq stood a good chance of degenerating into anarchy and violence.

According to an Associated Press article by John Heilprin which was posted at 4:48 AM Eastern Time, November 5th, and which seems to have fallen"below the fold" as of 8:43 AM Eastern Time, November 5th, the George Washington University requested, and received, a declassified report describing the results of the games.

(It's a good thing I'm old enough to have to go pee in the middle of the night, or I would have missed it.)

The AP article provides a link to the George Washington University's "National Security Archives" page...but when R&R tried to access it, we were served an error message from the University. Not being conspiracy theorists, we'll try again later. The URL is:
http://www.gwu.edu/nsarchiv/index.html

The AP article goes on to offer excepts from the report:

• "A change in regimes does not guarantee stability," the 1999 seminar briefings said. "A number of factors including aggressive neighbors, fragmentation along religious and/or ethnic lines, and chaos created by rival forces bidding for power could adversely affect regional stability."


• "Even when civil order is restored and borders are secured, the replacement regime could be problematic- especially if perceived as weak, a puppet, or out-of-step with prevailing regional governments."


• "Iran's anti-Americanism could be enflamed by a U.S.-led intervention in Iraq," the briefings read. "The influx of U.S. and other western forces into Iraq would exacerbate worries in Tehran, as would the installation of a pro-western government in Baghdad."


• "The debate on post-Saddam Iraq also reveals the paucity of information about the potential and capabilities of the external Iraqi opposition groups. The lack of intelligence concerning their roles hampers U.S. policy development."


• "Also, some participants believe that no Arab government will welcome the kind of lengthy U.S. presence that would be required to install and sustain a democratic government."

Mr. Hailprin goes on to point out that many of these predictions are similar to what actually transpired...go figure!

Take It On Faith

Penetrating the essence of the peasants’ faith is difficult. Essentially, it was a belief in the supernatural. They revered [the Pope] not as the Vicar of Christ [but] more like a great magician….if the pontiff’s magic failed, they would begin to turn away from him.

-William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire, 1992

In the dark ages, mankind lived by his faith (or perhaps it is more proper to say, by his superstition). This happened because Science was inadequate to meet the needs of the day. It did not explain the invisible plagues that crept through the land; it did not explain the things that went bump in the night.

So, mankind used his superstition to provide a framework upon which to hang the often troubling events that defined his world: Vampires, Werewolves, and Satan himself prowled the landscape. These dark images served very well to provide some rationale, some explanation, for those troubles which beset him.

Today, we are plagued by the opposite problem. Science has postulated so much information that those of us who either don’t have the education to understand, or who do not wish to take the time away from our daily lives (by far, I think, the greater number) have chosen to operate on faith.

In a world where we are beset by offerings of new information: podcasts, blogs, talk radio, streaming talk radio, TV, You-Tube, newsfeeds, RSS, and, of course, old fashioned books and newspapers, printed on honest-to-god paper, the possibilities are endless, and the shades and nuances of truth are, like my computer’s monitor, displayed in “millions of colors”.

In the end, who has the time to chase them all down? Did Kerry insult the troops, or did he take a righteous shot at the President and get quoted out of context by the Right Wing Media. Is the economy failing, or is it growing? Is Global Warming a fact? If so, is it part of the natural course of things, or is it the result of human activity? Can we stop it? Should we try?

In the end, most of us, and I must include myself, begin to act on faith. We operate on what we believe to be true.

In an article in The New Republic, Alan Wolfe reviews Tempting Faith, a book by David Kuo, a former Bush Administration official. In it, Wolfe describes the mindset of those evangelical Christians who help put Bush in office, and who helped keep him there:

Born-again Christians tend not to be liturgical in their religious practices;
spontaneity of expression takes priority over never-changing ritual. They are
not given to excessive theological exegesis; the text of the Bible tells them
all they need to know. They generally prefer their rock music to Bach and
Handel. Compared with Catholics, they are distrustful of hierarchy. Compared
with Jews, they emphasize belief over observance. Compared with their mainline
Protestant brethren, they worship with enthusiasm. And compared with every other
religion on the face of the earth, they judge sincerity by the power of the
stories that they tell each other.

And also…

Sincerity, for them, is everything, which is another way of saying that facts are nothing. The proof of their faith is its credulity.

Meaning, of course, that it boils down to two things: Keep It Simple, Stupid; and, the greater your ability to believe without proof, the more you exhibit to God and the world that you have Faith.

In arguing with conservative friends, I have been amazed at their ability to completely block out what I believe to be overwhelming evidence that the Bush Administration has failed on almost every front.

But, looking at this, I realize that their worldview does not depend on the evidence, or on logical argument. In a world defined exclusively by Faith, logic holds no place at all. Science and empirical reasoning do not hold sway. If the Bible says the world stopped spinning, then it stopped spinning; a man walked upon the water; and water was literally changed into wine.

When one is dealing with faith of this sort, a faith which, for some, postulates that George W. Bush is part of this great plan, one must not expect logic to carry the day: because Faith is a defense mechanism employed expressly to fill the gap created by lack of specific knowledge. It doesn’t matter if that knowledge is lacking because it does not exist (as in the Middle Ages) or because it is too complex to grasp (as in modern times.)
The result is the same.

Many of us despise this childlike and foolish ability to deny facts, to embrace faith, and thus avoid finding REAL solutions. But the lesson to draw from this is that we, too, must always be on guard against our own tendency toward Faith. Faith is, in the end, harmful. It stands in the way of progress. It doesn’t matter if one’s gods are God, or Rachael Carson, Noam Chomsky, Thomas Jefferson, Eugene Debs, or Karl Marx. Everything must be subject to examination. Even our own certainty.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see if the people’s faith in “the great magician”, George W. Bush, and his congressional minions, will show solid signs of failing next Tuesday.

If so, I hope that those who will begin to gather in the reins of leadership have a better plan than taking everything on Faith.

Changing Spots

“Well, well! What next?... Brother Mycroft is coming round…It is as if you met a tram-car coming down a county lane. Mycroft has his rails and he runs on them...What upheavel could have possibly derailed him?”

It is with these words that Sherlock Holmes announces that his brother, Mycroft, is going to do something very out of character: leave his stodgy club and pay a visit to the detective and his friend.

I recalled them because today struck me as a day in which a lot of people did things that were out of character.

First of all, Rip and Read did something out of character: we actually went to a newsworthy event rather than simply engaging in our usual style of, well, rip and read “journalism.”

The event in question was the “Victory Rally” hosted by Senate Candidate Bernard Sanders. If you are one of the faithful, as I am, it was great. Rousing speeches, enthusiasm, cheering, and a heartily expressed wish on the part of all present to see George W. Bush become the lamest of all lame duck presidents that ever were.

So, at a gathering headed by Bernie, and showcasing Patrick Leahy, Peter Welch, Gaye Symington, and a host of other Democrats, what did I find that was out of character?

Well, the fact that it happened at all really.

In his Freyne Land entry, Peter Freyne described the new dynamic duo, Leahy and Sanders, Vermont’s new U.S. Senate delegation: They move well together. Smoothly. Like an old couple.
He's right, they do. And, while it is encouraging to an old faithful Democrat like me to see such a powerful and coordinated show, it is also odd. See, I’ve been in Vermont long enough to remember another Bernie. A Bernie with wilder hair, dirtier sweaters, and no idea how to tie a tie. And that Bernie used to thunder on endlessly, castigating us who had faith in the Democratic Party (the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and, yes, Patrick Leahy) lambasting us as mere Democans and Republocrats.

Used to set my teeth on edge.

And while I am grateful to have him on our side for a change... I still have to wonder when and why Bernie, who used to have his rails and run on them, jumped the track.
Did he sell out? Or did he just grow up?

In either event I, for one, am grateful for the change.

Oh, and the other out of character happening? Well, this is more a wish than a fact, but I hope it is going to be this: Karl Rove chokes (figuratively- I write, just in case the Justice Department is reading) on Election Day.

The Incomplete Works of...

This morning, I read an article in the New York Times On Line on market segmentation within the malls of America.

But as retail companies race to open new chains that serve ever-smaller slices of the population they are using storefronts cloaked in wood and brick to ward off those who do not belong inside (and whose presence might diminish the shopping experience of those who do).

The copy of Newsweek that I'm reading now has an article about a reporter who finally swore off botox and who swears she will swear off fighting the aging process, and right next to her is a picture of Nicole Ritchie (whoever the hell she is) looking like death...warmed over. (Or like a young version of Nancy Reagan, which ever you prefer.)

At any rate all of this inspired the beginnings of "deep thoughts" about the ever growing tendency in our society to segment ourselves into groups of people exactly like ourselves.

And I'll try to write about this...I will...but now I have to go to the dentist...so I offer this musing instead:

Ever walk by your bookshelf and notice these kinds of titles: The Complete Works of So and So?

I did, just this morning, notice such a title on my shelf: The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain and I wondered...would an incomplete work feature pages of offerings like this?

In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, "Thish-yer Smiley had a mare-- the boys called her the fifteen minute nag-- he set the frog down and took out after the feller, but he never katched him."

And then I wondered. Are these two topics really the same? Am I perpetrating modern art. Will I make the dentist on time if I keep writing?

A Cheap Shot

I know, I know, dear reader (singular). It is too easy….but I CAN’T resist…when two articles like this run back to back, you just have to take the shot. Even though you know they’ll do it better on the Daily Show, or Stephanie Miller later on today.

Anyway….

Yesterday’s big story from the Animal Kingdom concerned Happy, the Bronx Zoo Elephant who may have made history by becoming one of the few biological organisms shown to capable of recognizing themselves in a mirror.

Scientists have considered this ability a sign of “higher intelligence” and, to date, the phenomenon was observed only in humans, chimpanzees, and perhaps dolphins.

A sign of hope, eh?

Well, not quite.

Because that other great elephant, George W. Bush, was in Texas yesterday and told the huge, safely conservative crowd: "However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses".

Now, call me crazy, but with a mounting monthly toll of American dead, a dwindling list of allies, an Afghanistan slipping out of control, and a North Korea reportedly straining to turn its nuclear pop-guns on the West Coast of the United States, I just can’t follow his argument.

After all, the Republicans are solidly in power now, and it would seem that the terrorists are having a pretty good game. Bush keeps looking into the mirror of failure, but failing to recognize himself.

Oh well, perhaps that is only to be expected. After all, according to the Associated Press article, the other two elephants in the test displayed only mixed results when it came to being able to identify themselves in the mirror.

It could be that some elephants are more advanced than others.

Perhaps, Happy is simply a superior type of Republica…..oops, I mean elephant, after all.