Whatcha Reading?

[Mark]

Yesterday I noticed in one of his comments on COTO that Waldo is reading, Family of Secrets. I got that book from the library the other day and just started reading it myself.

Come across any good books lately?

I want to read Eva Golinger's recent book, The Empire's Web: Encyclopedia of Interventionism and Subversion, but it was published in Venezuela in Spanish and I don't know if it is out in English yet.

[Kate]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/blog/talking_politics/article/55620/



Politics.Co.UK

Title of article - Why I'll never understand Americans

The hatred the American right has shown the NHS in recent days is just one more reason why I'll never understand our cousins across the Atlantic.
By Ian Dunt

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

[BO]

But wait, they just gave us $4500 to buy a new car, and $8000 for a new house. At least the family will die in comfort.

OK, yeah, that was cynical.

Why be concerned for the health of your population when they've grown far too old anyway. Better to let 'em die and save some money. They're easily replaced by new third-world immigrants anyway.

All you gotta to do is keep them thinking you have their best interest in mind.

As cynical as that sounded, I think it pretty much is the way it is.

[Mark]

Ian Dunt writes, "We live in a mixed economy. We aim to have enough free market to control the state, and provide the things we want. But we also need enough socialism to ensure we do not live like savages, the weakest amongst us starving to death on the street while a rich woman buys a Gucci handbag. Socialism without capitalism turns to tyranny. Capitalism without socialism turns to barbarism."

America is a fascist country. The freedom of the rich woman to buy a Gucci handbag would be meaningless if there weren't homeless people for her to feel superior to. Similarly, what good is health care if everyone has it? How would having it make you feel better than others, special, exceptional, number one, a bigger crook than all the other crooks, or a winner blessed from above?

There are billions of dollars at stake, so the for-profit health care industry can afford to spend a few millions on lies, and their paid-for politicians know where those big campaign donations come from. But the average American needs a lot of stuff that nobody else has, so that after they've killed a lot of people to get that stuff, they can claim that everyone hates them for their stuff.

Not to worry. The whole corrupt system is falling apart. Me, I'll never understand Britons. They've already experienced the decline and fall of empire and a close encounter with fascism. Yet they threw in with the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan. The British people may be a mixed bag, but their rulers are obviously still empire builders, colonialists, and fascists just like America's rulers. In fact, we have the same rulers.

I noticed a comment about Americans having elected Bush twice. Bush was never elected. In 2000 the Supreme Court stopped the vote count, and in 2004 Kerry conceded before the votes could be counted. Can you call it an election if the votes aren't counted?

I rather doubt that the British have much more power over their government than we do. Back when the NHS started, yes, but not these days. Once the Downing Street Memos came out and everyone was aware that the intelligence had been fixed to justify a war of aggression against Iraq, all countries party to that war of aggression, if they were democratic countries, would have withdrawn. In the U.S. when John Conyers tried to bring a petition with half a million signatures to the White House, he was told to pass it through the fence--with the TV cameras rolling to record that ignominy. When he tried to hold hearings, he was relegated to a basement room instead of a hearing room, and he has more seniority than all but one other person in the House of Representatives (our House of Commons). In England, nothing much happened either. There was some questioning and there were some outcries, but the troops weren't withdrawn.

When you find out that you're doing something wrong, based on a lie, you stop doing it. You don't say, well, it's a lie, but I'm already doing it, so I can't stop. The U.S. and the UK have a lot in common with COTO.

The question isn't understanding Americans or the English, the question is understanding our common rulers, the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers, and that's an easy one. They're the fatties like Mr. Creosote, and the rest of us are here to serve them.

[Kate]

George Carlin, reminder to me and thee, thank you. Waldo put this video on ning, No we don't belong to their club ( the wealthy who run this country.) We are the commons.


Yes, true so true. Why did Tony the Blair go along with the war - it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. What matters is having the awareness which makes one confront an ugly truth about "freedom, liberty and JUSTICE FOR ALL", ha !

I have two very lovely daughters and I would rather live in the UK with the real friends we made over the years. I agree with Bo as well, shall I tell ye why? From my perspective Bo has been writing enough is enough. In other words he is tired and if those who believe in the la la land America ya ya ya, and yellow ribbons with media entertainment, OH WELL! Spot on. Lara and I read the waldo's coto blog. What can we do? I am trying to figure that out - do we stay in California. Do we move to the UK. I have to think about Lara and Domi - a mother who has been asleep for too many years - I have to tell you that I barely trust myself because of the sleep I' ve been in - and I better watch out because I tend to open my gob and get into trouble.


Thanks Bo, Thanks Mark and all ye ning folk

[BO]

True, Bo's been writing enough is enough for years. Tis the problem solver in me that refuses to give up--even when all those around me tell me to do so.

Fact is...evil has become so ubiquitous and entrenched throughout our society, I awaken from my naivete and discover they are probably right. Truth is, evil faces few challenges in these 'post modern' times.

So, when I get to this point I usually have to go do something else for a while and rebuild my hope. That there is no way to solve this crisis, is too depressing a thought for me to dwell upon--let alone, admit to myself.

Time to regroup. Maybe go do a little healthy fantasizing, escape into some kinda entertainment or project. And keep myself from joining some kind of militia. Kidding.

I hear Canada is nice.

[waldopaper]

"That there is no way to solve this crisis..." Nope. There isn't.

But there IS a way to design a soft(er) landing. I'm not sure it's building a bunker and stocking it with provisions... but if I could afford to do that, I'd probably try. But I think it's much more simple than that. Simple, yes. Easy, no.

[BO]

Actually, this is a very good place to practice your writing, Laura. No one is going to judge you harshly. As long as your thoughts are sincere, you'll do just fine. Besides, we're all full o' crap anyways.

[Mark]

What BO said.

Uh, wait....did BO just say I'm full of crap and I agreed?

Maybe a good idea to mull stuff over just a bit.....I gotta try that. Thanks, Laura! ;)

[waldopaper]

Wild Ducks Flying Backward
The Short Writings of Tom Robbins

Tom just scrapes together some odds and trends he dropped on the way to the Gingerbread Cottage some 10-20 years ago... good stuff anyway... Tom's stuff usually is.

[Mark]

Not a bad article by Al Giordano of Narco News:

The Learning Curve of the Teachers vs. the Honduras Coup

Giordano's an Obamapologist, but he is correct with regard to the necessity of public outreach and education. Unless there is widespread revolutionary consciousness, violence will always prevail. This is as much, if not more, our own problem than the problem of Honduras.

[Mark]

Urban Guerrilla Warfare by Anthony James Joes.

More than 80% of the casualties of modern warfare are civilian noncombatants, mostly women and children. Most of the killing in modern warfare is deliberately done in such a way at to inflict the utmost humiliation and agony on the victims--atrocities are the norm, not aberrations. This book doesn't seem to see the forest for the trees, it gives the facts of the atrocities, but places the blame on individuals, governments, and ideologies rather than on the pattern of thousands of years of patriarchy which devalues life and glorifies death.

Published in 2007, the book, which I have barely begun reading, "focuses on eight key examples of urban guerrilla conflict spanning half a century and four continents." But a quick glance at the last few pages reveals the author advising Americans to avoid urban warfare when possible, but to practice "rectitude," when such conflict is necessary.

Necessary? When is it ever necessary to kill noncombatants? Even the exculpatory term "collateral damage," admits that such murders are not necessary, even when not accompanied by deliberate atrocities. Rectitude? He's gotta be kidding. Military forces that engage in wars of aggression are not capable of rectitude.

Joes is a Poli Sci professor, and seems to adhere to the belief that there is a difference between various patriarchal ideologies and governments. He is correct, of course, just as there is a difference between Democrats and Republicans, but it is, as they say, a difference without a distinction, and about as important as counting angels on pinheads. Or by pinheads.

What I've found most depressing isn't the billions of needless deaths since patriarchy conquered the world, but the fact that many brilliant and enlightened males who understand the problem, who can explain and teach that we are part of the world, not it's owners and rulers, that the world is our habitat, not our slave or our toy, etc., still view patriarchy as inevitable because they themselves are predators who think violence is glamorous. One of the foremost authors in explicating the problem, has more respect for trees and animals than for the females in his life.

Joes does point out that the atrocities are neither natural or normal when he writes, "The atrocities in Warsaw are shocking but not inexplicable: the Nazis were profoundly frightened by the rising, as they had been by the revolt in the ghetto the previous year. Besides, Hitler's regime had for years sought to uproot normal human compassion and inculcate unprecedented cruelty, and, of course, to any good National Socialist the Slavic Poles were an especially inferior race."

Well, sure. They're smaller and weaker. They're less aggressive. They have less testosterone. How could they possibly not be inferior? Uh, so why does compassion have to be uprooted and cruelty have to be taught? Don't they just come with the hormones?

It will be interesting to see how the author treats the other seven instances of urban guerrilla warfare.

One of Hitler's many inspirations was a book called Sex and Gender, written by a Jew. I found it rather interesting to compare the many ways in which Jewish patriarchy views females, with the ways that Nazis viewed Jews. For most people, I think the differences overshadow the similarities, but if the problem is patriarchy, it is the similarities that are crucial. We cannot be part of the solution as long as we are part of the problem. Asking Americans engaged in wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan to exhibit rectitude as a military tactic to gain the support of civilian populations, which is usually called "hearts and minds," is absurd. If we were capable of rectitude, we wouldn't be there. Asking people who cannot transcend the competitive model, to sacrifice power and glory for mere survival doesn't fly. Those who see hierarchy as inevitable, inevitably prefer death to equality--life just isn't worth living if you aren't better than somebody else.

Anyway, it is an interesting book and, of course, what I myself have always expected to happen at any moment. Kinda funny though, being old and having a place to live instead of being on the street, homeless. Also interesting that I expect the jackbooted thugs who kick my door in to be my own government, not some foreign force. I've been told that my comfortable situation is supposed to instill a sense of security. And perhaps, if I was ignorant of history and current events, it would.

Oh wow! I'd been wondering what it would be like to miss somebody, and I just felt it. The late Juan Santos. One of the very few guys in the world who understood the problem and was a true warrior for equality. I really do miss him, but of course I never met him.

[Mark]

On April 18th, 2009, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela gave U.S. President Barack Obama a copy of a book by Eduardo Galeano called The Open Veins of Latin America. I don't know if Obama ever read the book (you can lead a man to books, but you can't make him read), but I wanted to read it, so I put in a reserve hold on it at my public library. A lot of other people had the same idea and beat me to it, so I just got the book today. From the introduction by Isabel Allende, it looks like it was very much worth the wait.

Here's a single sentence from the first page of Galeano's own introduction to the book:

"The more freedom is extended to business, the more prisons have to be built for those who suffer from that business."