the black dog's got me again...

Or should that be 'still" ?

Anyway I seem to have run out of rant for now. The American elections will happen next Wednesday, and after that, no matter who wins, it'll be Big Business as usual. The rich will continue to blame the poor for being poor and then exploit them mercilessly. The middle class will continue to suck up to the rich (that's what being an "aspirational" is all about, right?) "The war on terror" will create five new "terrorists" for every one they kill. Fascism will become the new global ideology and bloggers like me will finally give up or get locked up for newly defined Thought Crimes or for boring people to death.

I've got a feeling that this blog will be sporadic and perhaps even different from now on...

Remember,if Bush wins, and I think he will, don't get too depressed. It was never going to get that much better under Kerry anyway... Happy Prozac popping, people...

you can have any democracy you like, as long as it's pro-american...

William Blum writes:

Time Magazine reported that the Bush administration had a plan to use the CIA to funnel money to candidates it favored in the forthcoming Iraqi elections. The rationale given was that Iran was probably bankrolling its own preferred candidate.{1} Whether Iran has actually been engaged in such I do not know, but what is certain is that it is irrelevant to American policy. The United States has been trying to fix elections in every corner of the world for more than half a century without any other foreign power being in the picture at all. Full Story >>>

causes of terrorism and some statistics...

An article titled Why I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't, by Kathleen Christison, contains, in part, this illuminating snippet:

...the obscenely close U.S. relationship with Israel and what he frankly called Israeli "bashing" of Palestinians has something to do with arousing Arab and Muslim anger and the kind of hatred of Israel and the U.S. that provokes terrorism. He even went so far as to remark that the Bush administration's embrace of Ariel Sharon is so tight that "it's impossible to know anymore where U.S. policy stops and Mr. Sharon's begins." Full Story >>>

serenity...

Ashbyia, whose blog was once public, and who is not being quite the failed buddhist that I am, wrote this:

Seems to me that in order to have peace in the world, every person needs to be at peace in the world.

It's no good jumping up and down demanding peace. It's no good shouting about war and injustice. It's no good being angry and demanding that governments do something.

No. The way to world peace is through peaceful thoughts and actions. Spreading kindness. Spreading understanding. Spreading acceptance.

Putting away anger. Banishing hatred from our thoughts and speech. Acting from the soft place in our heart. Walking a peaceful path, with determination and effort.

Because anger and demanding and recriminations have not worked anywhere in the world so far. Hatred leads to more hatred. Violence leads to more violence. Anger leads to more anger.

What we need, as the man said, is to give peace a chance.

May Hakuin bless her little cotton socks...

In about 1991, during a particularly interesting channelling session in which Lynn (who has since "crossed over") channelled an entity calling itself David, I asked David to define serenity. He defined it thus:

"Serenity is the absence of the perception of threat."

(a) I was stunned.
(b) It's the best definition of serenity I have come across in the 58 years I've been lurching lightward.
(c) I have not the faintest hope of being able to get even close to this experience.

P.S. I've just run "lurching lightward" through Google, and it seems I've said something original, Googlewise that is... So, until further notice "lurching lightward" is the copyright of this blog owner. (giggle)

my letter to the americans....

I get frustrated with the refusal of the vast majority of Amercans to inform themselves about the facts about America's disgusting, selfish and murderous foreign policy over the last 100 years or so (I guess it would be just too "un-American" to do so.)

I obviously piss many Americans off with my anti-American ranting. As a committed pacifist, the only weapon I have is ranting and protesting, and even this right may soon be taken away from me under America's new wonderful "security" laws imposed internationally via their "advisory" interactions with "democratic" governments like ours.

I know why Americans are so terrified. They're getting a sense of the amount of rage that their mad brand of globalised capitalism is generating and they realise that most of the raging humans are not sworn pacifists like myself, and being just as war-hungry as America, these raging humans have decided to come after Americans now if America persists with its mad ways. And America will continue with its mad ways ("war on terror" is a classic example.) It wouldn't be America if it didn't. It's America's insane version of "democracy". America is insane and it doesn't know that it's insane.

Gerog W. Bush will not fix it. John Kerry cannot fix it.

America has doomed itself into becoming the most murderous, fascist regime the world has ever known. It will murder tens, if not hundreds, of millions before it finally collapses in a screaming heap. It will do this under the delusion of "keeping the world safe". It will happen that way because American "democracy" is a diabolical caricature of what true democracy is.

But sadly, Americans are obsessed with the need to "be positive" and what I have to say is way too "negative" so no one's listening. I don't think Americans can afford to think about what I have to say. I think it would be way too threatening to their self-image.

I just love the way Americans blame their governments and refuse to take any personal responsibility for the fact that they elected these governments. When the Republicans rule, the Democrats say "it's not our fault" and when the Democrats rule, the Republicans say "it's not our fault", whilst all the while both parties support the foreign policies which impose global capitalism, and the McCulture that comes with it, upon a huge mass of people who don't want it but who are denied the right to vote against it. Well now they're voting with airliners, truck bombs, car bombs and exploding backpacks and "girdles".

Neither party will do what would end anti-American terrorism completely and immediately: America will not stop interfering in the world ("in America's interests" of course). It will not pull its military bases out of where they're not wanted. It will not stop supporting Israel's murderous land-grab in Palestine (they're doing it with American military hardware and billions of U.S. dollars of "aid".) It will not insist that Israel dismantle its nuclear arsenal. Why will none of these things happen? Because too few Americans are willing to endure the discomfort of reading books critical of America's foreign policy so they never even find out what's really going on. If it's not on CNN or Fox, it's not happening, right?

You wonder why I hold the average American in contempt? I think with democracy comes the obligation to hunt down the truth before you vote on anything, but the avarage American voter is pig-ignorant about what his/her own country has really been up to around the world. They're far too busy believing the warm fuzzy propaganda fed to them by their politicians and Big Business interests through their media, corporate hype, their churches and their schools. Oh don't worry, dudes and dudettes, I'm just as hard on the idiots here in Australia, but per capita, I think we have more informed voters here. We had about one million demonstrate at anti-war rallies in mid-Feb 2003. Per capita that would equate to about 15 million American demonstrators. How many demonstrated in America in mid-Feb 2003, I wonder...

(ahhhh... that feels better...)

emotional correctness...

Help me out here, guys... Is anger the same as hate? Yeah, I've still got an issue with this. My problem is that I think that anger and hate carry different baggage.

In other words, hate is evil but anger is an acceptable response (not necessarily enlightened, but permissible.) So what gives? I need to know.

this is only happening because....

In a truly free society, I could say "this is only happening because not enough of them are getting shot", but in our society I can't say that because it could be construed as inciting the wanton killing of corrupt politicians and they are afraid that this might get so popular that it could lead to a very bloody revolution.

So, I won't say "this is only happening because not enough of them are getting shot" because, kiddies, I don't think you should break the law and stage a very bloody revolution. Besides, kiddies, The Bastards have WMDs which they wouldn't bat an eyelid about using on their own people to prevent "enough of them getting shot". So kiddies, please don't go shooting any corrupt politicians - they're too heavily armed these days...

However, if we can get enough Peaceful People Power happening, we can "do a Gandhi" on The Bastards! Yeah! Remember? Peaceful People Power worked in India, Poland, East Germany, Romania and even Russia. The Bastards have no answer for true democracy in action, Peaceful People Power. So, my luvvlies, this is only happening because not enough of us are getting in The Bastards' faces and up their noses!

Get involved today!

a clue about iraq under saddam...

Watching the ABC program "Foreign Correspondent" tonight I caught this comment: "Iraq is largely a middle class society with middle class aspirations." This says lots. It says that Saddam's Ba'ath Party created a majority middle class. In other words, socialism can deliver!

This fits well with images I gleaned during the coverage of the war which showed me that there were well-built four-lane highways with well-designed rest-areas. Hardly the image of a struggling nation. Keeping in mind that the images I saw showed an Iraq which had been under crippling economic sanctions imposed by America for more than ten years. Yep, Saddam was a monster. So is George Bush...

This is, once again, about greedy Big Business investors trying to trash Socialism because they can't make money out of it (because the wealth doesn't go into their selfish mega-rich Armani pockets, but gets put back into public (community) assets and services. D'oh...

a little gem...

Found this on a blog that changes so drastically and so often that putting in a link to the relevant article is utterly pointless (sigh), as is getting angry about it:

Anger closes the heart. It is hot, burning, fire. In its passion it pushes away, condemns, and makes everything wrong except itself. Your heart goes out of reach, and you lose basic sanity. Anger can appear as irritation, frustration, fury, rage and hatred; repressed anger can manifest as depression, emptiness, coldness. Because it contains so much energy, anger is not all wrong - it is an expression of the passion for justice and fairness, for basic rightness - so in denying it you are also denying your feelings, your engagement and passions for life, for what is appropriate and humane. But the expression of anger can cause tremendous damage and hurt; it is described as a single match that can begin a forest fire. The fallout can be huge and you invariably have no control over the repercussions, Finding a way through this, where you can keep your passion but change your unskillful means of expressing it, is the path of transforming it into gold.' ~ Ed & Deb Shapiro, Unconditional Love: How to Live With an Open Heart in a Changing World, pp. 68-9.

One day I will learn to deal with my anger better...

I'm getting scared again...

Jeff has this to say about the new breed of Republican:

In '72, mean-spirited Republicans would most definately rip your McGovern sticker off of your bumper. All right, okay... just put on a new one.

But today, Bush supporters are a different breed. They're not simply "mean-spirited", there are scores of them who are "Nazi-like" in their zealous support of him.

These SS men read a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker as a bullseye. To these storm troopers, YOU ARE THE ENEMY!

Full Story >>>

anger management...

"I feel pretty, oh so pretty..."

I think I just lost an American epal (that's the e equivalent of a penpal.) And while I am very sad at her reaction, I refuse to take responsibility for it.

It's all about anger and hate. I differentiate between the two, but it seems that she does not. So I'm accused of hate because I'm angry.

I give up...

left, left, left right left...

Private health insurance and Medicare (the two-tier system) vs Medicare-only (universal, single-tier, health care system). Here's my dilemma:

Under the two-tier system, those with the money for private health insurance jump the queue so to speak; they use their (comparative) wealth to hijack the services that ought to be there for all, whilst the poor just keep getting pushed further to the back of the queue and the waiting lists get longer and longer. No incentive to fix the system, because only the disenfranchised suffer, and who cares about them, eh? The rich survive whilst the the poor die. Nice one. Very humane.

Under a universal (single-tier) health care system, there would be only one queue. The rich and the poor all in the same line. Can you imagine the fuss the rich and influential would create if they had to wait for their health care? Things would get fixed pronto, wouldn't they? And that would be good for everyone, wouldn't it?

That's why people ought to vote for Labor or the Greens. But, hey, forget about those "losers", vote Liberal, vote for an unfair two-tier system, right? Right! Damn Right!!!

Well, that's why I'm Left and proud of it! You don't have to be a pseudo zen master to figure that one out...

israel gaols peace activist...

Found this at oznik.com:

In September 2003 a young Israeli woman, Tali Fahima, visited Jenin refugee camp and met with Zakariye Zbeide, leader of Fateh militants in the camp. Another visit to Jenin, and the dangerous words she spoke have landed her, almost a year later, in an Israeli prison, under administrative arrest (read: without a trial). In the following interview, published in Ha'Ir magazine in February 2004,
Fahima narrates her experience >>>

And after reading that, if you want to know more about Zakariye Zbeide, read this >>>

poor fella my country...

Desert Star is a great blog hanging off a great website called Desert Dreams. Go there. You'll love it. To give you a taste, here's a bit of Bob Innes's political commentary which I think is well worth reading:

Does a country get the leader it deserves, or does a leader guide the country towards their view of what they believe a country should be? It's an important question in light of the results of election 2004, wherein John Winston Howard, one of the most reviled and vilified leaders the country has ever seen, has won an historic four elections in a row, by popular mandate. Full Story >>>

the oldest profession...

It's often said that prostitution is the oldest profession. But I've been thinking...
I think the oldest profession is the god business. How did I arrive at this "truth"? Easy, picture if you will, the first idiot to invent the concept of "god". I got the image of a grunting caveman assigning all manner of things to a god. Crops failing, illness, deaths, etc. All because the stupid dork didn't understand anything.

Anyway, way back then, there was apparently no need for prostitution, because if you wanted a woman, you apparently just clubbed her into submission and had your way with her. So it's clear that the god business preceded prostitution as the earliest profession. And what a great profession it was too.

The person who convinced the others in the tribe that s/he was a conduit to or spokesperson for some higher authority/power had immense power over the tribe.
Anyone disagreeing with, or doubting the authority of this person could be killed.
Not an atmosphere which stimulated debate or inquiry.

And so, religious bigotry was created. To sanctify this bigotry, "faith" and "belief" were elevated to the status of holiness when all along they were nothing more than the dodgy pillars of bigotry. The dumbing-down of the population was herewith enshrined. Since then, the "strength" of a person's "faith" was measured by the degree of ossification of their bigotry. Stupidity became a virtue, a cornerstone of religion.

Today, thousands of years later, many are still in the vice-like grip of the bigotry-inspired stupidity which prevents them from breaking free from ancient and illogical superstitions. Talk about sheep... baa-a, baa-a, baa-a... And our politicians love it...

the train wreck we had to have?

Analysing Labor's election train wreck, Gary Sauer-Thompson comments on Labor's attempt at explaining its defeat and asks some interesting questions:

The flow of excuses all assume that elections are won or lost during election campaigns. The commentators reinforce this when they analyse every nuance in the campaign in an attempt to make sense of the result. Shouldn't we looking beyond the spectacle and theatre of the campaign? Shouldn't we be looking at bedrock public opinion, emotional templates, political unconscious, public mood and changing political patterns? Isn't that where elections are lost and won? It is more a long term campaign--a war of position--- than a question of tactics in a day to day battle.

For instance, should not the ALP be trying to deal with the conservative blue collar workers continuing their drift to the LNP as the left decamps to the Greens?

An example. In Adelaide the Liberals now hold the new seat of Wakefield. That means the Liberals are representing traditional rock solid working class areas such as Elizabeth and Salisbury. That is a huge shift.

Full Story >>>

a bright new day for australia...

Oh I'm so lucky to live in this country. Lucky, lucky, lucky... The election results have really made my day. What wonderful news!

The Liberals have won! Oh what Joy! By playing to the Australian people's greed, fear, xenophobia, and racism, with a little help from the fanatical Christian Right,
and by mounting the biggest pork-barrelling exercise as well as the most expensive tax-payer funded Liberal advertising campaign in Australia's history, John Howard is back in power and he'll most likely get control of the Senate as well (a first since the Fraser years.)

With no one in the Upper House to stop the Liberals, it's open slather. Pity Australia's forests, the environment and the battlers, not to mention the refugees, but it's an absolutely splendid day for Big Business: They'll now flog-off Telstra to the highest (overseas) bidder, industrial relations will be "sorted out" to the detriment of the worker, and media ownership will be "deregulated" so that everything we see and hear from now on will be nicely controlled by American Big Business.

And Howard will now fully ratify the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., ensuring that Americans will soon control every worthwhile asset in Australia. And then, of course, there'll have to be lots and lots of big American military bases here to "protect" these assets. Oh what a beauty! Yipee!

The Howard government is now the biggest spending, biggest taxing government in Australia's history (bigger than the Hawke-Keating government). Hooray!

And how did Howard get control of the Senate? Easy! Labor and the Democrats were so determined to shut out the Greens (the only real Third Force) that their preferences look like giving Family First (the Christian fanatical fringe) a seat in the Senate at the expense of the Greens and they may also have cost the Greens a seat of two. This has now made the Greens in the Senate completely irrelevant. Nice one Labor and Democrats, you've handed control beautifully over to the Libs. What bunch of political geniuses thought up this "winning" strategy?!

And isn't democracy a wonderful thing? With enough money and enough lies peddled via a cozy Big Business media, you can stay in power till it's all over bar the shouting. "Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light.."

Now, for a well-crafted report, you might like to check out Gary Sauer-Thompson's brilliant comments and the links contained therein..

P.S. For all you budding authors out there, here's a title for a new book or major article: Australia, Rip Ya Cheeks Apart!

the commander in chief...

We in Australia, hear a lot about which U.S. Presidential Candidate would make the better Commander In Chief Of the Armed Forces in this current election campaign.

My question is this: Why do you brain-dead Yanks even entertain the no-brainer that a sleazy, megalomanic politician should be allowed to become Commander In Chief Of your Armed Forces?

Think about it, Yanks. (that's if Yanks can actually think...)

I give up....

Before we invaded Iraq, we were told in no uncertain terms that Iraq was an evil country in breach of International Law. We were told that The Rule Of Law was the most sacrosanct thing in our Civilisation. We were told that International Law was a very serious thing and to break it was sufficient reason for war.

Remember Slobodan Milosevic? He broke International Law. He commited war crimes. War crimes were breaches of International Law. He was made to stand trial in the International Court of Justice. International Law was a very serious thing way back then.

Then the U.S. decided that it was above International Law (Oil can do that to an Oil Man.) In going to war against Iraq, the U.S. ignored International Law. It broke International Laws by the dozen. And since then the U.S. has been very quiet about International Law. There's now an official silence about International Law.

But the U.S. will have to reinstate International Law in order to try Saddam Hussein under International Law for his war crimes. And that's when International Law will turn around and bite the U.S. on the bum. Very hard indeed!

Australia? Thanks to our Prime Minister, John Howard, we're now war criminals too.

The International Court of Justice? Oh that's right, I remember, that's the place to which East Timor is trying to drag Australia kicking and screaming, to face charges of oil and gas theft...

We have our federal elections this Saturday. Vote carefully, citizens of Australia. I wonder if, come Saturday night, I'll be a proud Australian, or an ashamed one (and one very much more afraid of the "terrorist's vote" on the way we voted.)

it's freedom of expression, Jim, but not as you know it...

As some of you might be aware, I'm also the editor of the webjournal Australian Veterans For Peace. The other day we got a comment (now deleted) in our online Guest Book from a guy called Jim. Here is my reply to his comment:

Jim,

I'd like to discuss with you the following comments you made in the Guest Book of our webjournal:

"You blokes are a disgrace."
It is not uncommon for veterans of wars to become staunch pacifists, Jim. There's a long history of that. It may have something to do with what these veterans learned about the evils of war. By the way, all of the articles in the webjournal so far are my own, so I guess you're saying that I am a disgrace. Would you mind telling me why you think that? I'd like to know.

"My father proudly fought in Vietnam 3 tours.If he could see this lefty crap it would break his heart."
The views expressed in the journal were not directed at your father, Jim. Yes, I have "lefty" views. I arrived at those after reading well-researched histories of many wars, the Vietnam one in particular, as well as books about politics. The more I read the more I moved from being a closet White Supremacist, a racist, a bigoted nationalist, a narrow-minded Aussie git, towards thinking of myself as a citizen of the world, and I started to respect all people everywhere as equal citizens of the world, irrespective of their race, religion, or ideology. It seems to me that only those on the left side of a politics share views similar to this. That's not to say that I agree with all views existing on the left side of politics. We mustn't get too caught up in generalisations.

"You give the true Vets of Australia a bad name."
What's a "true Vet of Australia", Jim? Are you saying I'm not a "true Vet of Australia", Jim? How am I giving vets a bad name, Jim?

"Do us a favour and move to China or Nth Korea you brain washed Socialist."
I was brainwashed in order to get me to go to Vietnam. I was lied to by my government, my church leaders, my teachers, and the media. That's brainwashing, Jim.
It wasn't till I was about 48 y.o. that I'd read enough to realise this, and I started to de-program myself from this brainwashing. Interestingly, this led me even more towards views which you dismiss as "lefty crap". I understand where you're at, Jim, I used to be there myself before I tore away the blindfold of my right-wing bigotry.

"How in the hell did the ADF let you lot in in the first place. "
Easy, Jim. They needed cannon-fodder and I believed the right-wing propaganda and happily joined up to kill me some "commie slopehead slanty-eyed Asian filth" who, I was told, were threatening to over-run Pure White Australia. The ADF happily took me for a ride on the way to a Valhalla of its very own making. And I very nearly got there, Jim! I can still hear "The Flight Of The Valkyrie" as clear as day.
Do you know what it feels like to have a "gook" fire a mag-and-a-half of AK47 crap at you from only eight metres away? It's a thought-provoking experience, I can tell you. Anyway, I digress... I was happy to go and "fight the good fight". As a young school kid I was taught to sing "Onward Christian soldiers, marching off to war..." Do you know that hymn, Jim? Do you sing it often?

"I will be passing this link onto other Veteran Orgs who will obviously take this up further with you guys."
Go for it, Jim. I may not agree with what you say, Jim, but I am prepared to fight to the death (in a non-violent way) for your freedom to say it. Can you say likewise? Or do you go around biffing people who say things you don't like to hear? Think about that, Jim.
Thanks for your comments, Jim. I'd be more than happy to continue to discuss things with you, and I bear you, or your father, no ill will.

Cheers,

Gerry

Why am I posting it here? On the off-chance that Jim also reads this blog. You see, Jim's email address failed to work. And here's the interesting thing: It's a Hotmail address (werenerostendorff@hotmail.com), and if you delete an extraneous "e" from his address, insert a space in the right place, and capitalise a couple of letters, you get the name Werner Ostendorff. Werner Ostendorff, a Google search revealed, was an SS-Gruppenführer and a Generalleutnant of the Waffen-SS for good old Adolf Hitler.

Makes you wonder about some of my Aussie mates, don't it?

hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Iran we go...

I've been told I must write something (hi Jeff). So, to keep you occupied while I sniff the wind, here's an interesting article from Z Magazine, by Edward S. Herman which nicely props up my WWIII scenario:

Iran is the next U.S. and Israeli target, so the mainstream U.S. media are once again serving the state agenda by focusing on Iran’s alleged menace and refusing to provide context that would show the menace to be pure Orwell—that is, while Iran is seriously threatened by the U.S. and its aggressively ethnic-cleansing client, Iran only threatens the possibility of self-defense.

You might have thought that after the retrospectively awkward and embarrassing media service to Bush’s lies about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction and dire threat to U.S. national security, which greased the skids to the invasion/occupation of Iraq, that the media would be less prone to jump uncritically on war propaganda bandwagons. But you would be wrong. It is a pretty reliable law of media performance that whenever the state targets an enemy, the media will get on the bandwagon enthusiastically or, at minimum, allow themselves to be mobilized as agents of propaganda and disinformation.

Full Story >>>
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