one by one

Printing things on sheets of paper and using an army of planes, trains, automobiles and sometimes bicycles to carry tons of printed material all over the country in order to keep the public informed is an increasingly anachronistic process. More ironic is the need to pay other people to collect, remove and recycle all that paper.

Even the most anachronistic technologies can take a long time to die. Decades after the advent of the telephone, it was still necessary to cajole a fearful and suspicious public into realizing that they needed one and of course the habits we make using outmoded processes are hard to break. People older than I am often cite the Sunday morning ritual of coffee and three pounds of newsprint as a high point of the weekend, but people younger rely more and more on the Internet, with it's vastly greater diversity of information, constantly updated and always available.

Television never was the threat to printed paper that the Internet has become. Around the clock news coverage has devolved into the constant mastication of a small handful of stories and is increasingly limited to local and sensational news and sometimes outrageously biased propaganda. The Internet has few limits.


The venerable and respected Christian Science Monitor has now ceased to use the wood pulp technology and has gone to the Web. Virtually all the print media has a Web presence. Advertising revenues are falling substantially and it's hard to think that we're not seeing the accelerating demise of the newspaper as we have known it. The Chicago Tribune has filed for bankruptcy, Detroit papers may soon curtail home delivery, publishers of local and regional papers are laying off staff.

Of course we will lose something intangible along with our very tangible piles of paper. When has there ever been change without loss? I'm guessing that one thing we will lose is the credibility of mainstream sources relative to the blogs, the fringe web sites, the loony bloviators and the special interest propagandists. Just who will the reporters at tomorrow's presidential news conferences represent?

Some seem to be making a joyful noise at the prospect; irresponsible polemicists for profit like Ann Coulter, for instance. Those who thrive on half-truth, fabrication, slander, slur and sleaze might well prosper in an Internet sea of smaller fish, where established entities aren't as easy to differentiate from crackpot sites and propaganda sites and blogs with plain old irresponsible reportage. Such places have little to lose when exposed and can change names and re-emerge. The New York Times cannot and it's far easier to hold reporters and editors who use real names accountable.

Still I won't mourn the inevitable extinction; the gains far out weigh the losses, but still -- if Ann Coulter likes it, it can't be all that good.

The Lucas Legacy

Many moons ago, in a galaxy far far away - a teenage girl named Squid went to see STAR WARS. She was so enthralled that she went to see the film 6 more times before summer's end. That fall, when back in school, she even wrote an essay for an English class assignment on Darth Vader. No kidding.

That same squidly girl would avidly await each of the subsequent 2 sequels. Decades later, as a squidly woman, she would stand in line for tickets to see the three original films - re-released onto the big screen - one more time. However, she did not watch her beloved films with the same eyes as she did as a teenaged girl. As STAR WARS played out before her eyes this time she began to think - wait a minute - how come every humanoid except Princess Leia is a white male? Can't people of color or even women! drive fighter jets? Or, at least, operate the controls back at headquarters? What do you mean, G. Lucas, that your awesome fantastical world is no more enlightened than mine?! I do not remember it so. I was once thrilled by Leia - the very concept of Leia. She was one of the first strong, do-it-yourself type of female characters I had ever seen (sadly) by the time I was a teenager. She was inspiring! She was AWESOME!!!! Now she seems, well, token-like in a sea of white men.

As does black Lando Calrissian, now, of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

Sigh

It's hard to go back onest one eyes have been opened.

As I watched the 3 films of old unfold before my eyes on the big screen, I willfully tried to silence the complaints of my enlightened, feminist mind, to fully engage the film, to recapture myself of old. It only half worked. Maybe. The experience of seeing these films again on the big screen was fun - but the magic was gone.

To his credit - in the face of such complaints from "special interest" groups - Lucas did present a somewhat more "enlightened" view of humanoids in the subsequent 3 installments (parts 1, 2, & 3).

So what's brought on all of this Squidly angst? My child, with light saber at the ready, is currently engaged in combat with evil droids in our living room. As I type this post, its familiar sabery sounds fill the air, conjuring up memories of Obi Wan Kenobi in my mind. Six installments later, G. Lucas' CLONE WARS has now captured the imagination of my child's generation. I asked my child recently - are there any female characters in the CWs? Used to the question by now, said child responded - oh yeah, there are some. Some? mmmmm

I'm so suspicious, jaded even, on the whole subject these days.

In time, said child will no doubt see the original 3 films (parts 4, 5, & 6). Part of me looks forward to introducing my child to a wonderful part of my imaginative past, though part of me hopes the earlier films do not re-inscribe my child with certain narrow views of humankind. It's the same problem with children's books of old . . .

So G. Lucas' wonderful - I mean that sincerely - world of Star Wars lives on in my home. Trying to change with the times, G. Lucas is now capturing the imaginations of another generation of children - I hope - I fervently hope, anyway, that girls are as captured by the mythic world of Lucas' mind as are boys. I HOPE parents do not convey to them that such stuff is just for boys. Though I have my doubts. I actually think the gender coding of toys, movies, etc. has gotten worse, not better. Even my child is aware of it without prompting from me. Another post for another day . . .

So as I depart to go & assess the droid carnage in my living room I will imagine myself as Princess Leia - patiently picking up the pieces of the chaos wrought by men (Luke & Han). She had a great line in STAR WAS as she grabbed a weapon from one of them quipping - "This is some rescue. Either of you have a real plan for getting us out of here?!"

Ha! I will forever have a forgiving feminist heart for Lucas because of that line! Oh so sarcastically delivered by Carrie Fisher.

The Floodgates Are Open!

The SEC has a lot of 'splainin' to do; This time to explain how a $50 billion dollar fraud scheme involving one of Wall St’s biggest movers and shakers could have happened right under their noses.

The full story is HERE but here are some highlights:

Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement attorneys were in federal court on Friday to seek emergency relief for investors, including an asset freeze and the appointment of a receiver for Madoff's firm, in an alleged $50 billion fraud that could be the largest ever pinned on an individual.

"If the SEC didn't come in and inspect (the Madoff hedge fund), then they have a hell of a lot to answer for," said James Cox, a Duke University law professor and securities law expert.
Other SEC critics questioned how Madoff could pull off, without the agency's notice, such an audacious fraud that prosecutors said amounted to a giant Ponzi scheme.

"Someone should have asked harder questions, but I'm not really sure" it was the SEC, said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University who was an SEC enforcement attorney. "Their hands were tied" by not initially having oversight of the Madoff hedge fund, he said.
The investors in Madoff's business were not asking questions while the fabulous returns were coming in — and maybe they should have, Henning said.

So much corruption has been allowed for so long that there is no way these financial big wigs can behave with honesty and integrity. I think the exotic trips and obscene severence packages have proved that!

We need to let the new administration know that enough is enough. No more wholesale bailouts! Whatever money is left when Obama finally takes office should be used with plenty of oversight and accountability and make sure the SEC is NOT a part of it. If those getting money don’t like it, screw ‘em; let them go home empty handed!

If you want to tell the Obama administration your ideas about restoring sanity to our economic crisis let them know HERE.

OBAMATCHOTCHKE

At hat tip to Becks at unfogged for reminding Obama supporters that there only 65 firing days left to get one of these.  I like the word “firing” because it captures the essence of "throw the bums out."  I also like some of the unfoggetariat comments:

Well, shit, man. I better order 2 I guess. (Stanley @ 12-11-08 9:53 PM).

I'd donate money to get Obama some big-ass KISS boots to wear to summits. (apostropher @ 12-11-08 10:09 PM)

And thanks to Jackmormon for the title idea.  Only one problem. I am not especially fond of chotchkes.

Step by step

It wouldn't be Christmas if we didn't have the mindless, botox-faced zombies at Fox yelping about the insult to religion. Of course it wouldn't be a free country if we weren't allowed to express our objections to anything or were forced to make religious oaths and follow religious practices. Oh, wait a minute -- we are. It isn't; at least not yet.

Lyin' Bill says he expects "they" (Jews, Atheists, Muslims) will try next to remove the national holiday (what, he called it a holiday?) on the premise that we can't have a holiday based on religion. Of course we can have a holiday based on the fact that nobody would come to work anyway, but that's inconvenient to his scenario and it annoys him that in fact, nobody seems to object to a day off for any reason.

It's my constitutional right to insult your religion, I'm proud to say, and it's only fair since your religion in and of itself insults mine and several others. In fact I take offense at some aspect of every religion I've yet heard of. It's good to live in a free country.

Apparently the sense of relief at being newly out from under the bootheel of religious tyrants seems to be spreading. Newsweek has a very objective over story on the empty bigotry of the war against gay marriage; one that I think couldn't have got past the editors before the election. Keith Olbermann came out last night and condemed Lyin' Bill's comic opera about Christians under siege as the stepchild of xenophobia and anti-Sematism.

It's not as if freedom is breaking out all over, but I sense a weakening of the old guard; the passing of an old, worn out tyranny and again, I'm no longer ashamed to be proud of being an American: not because I think we're the best, but because we're not as ashamed to admit our faults and more likely to do something about it.

Merry Christmas.

NO CHILD'S LEFT BEHIND

Who will President-Elect Obama choose for Education Secretary?  Lets hope he picks a better one who knows the difference between learning versus testing.

rags to bitches

The McCain Campaign is unloading their surplus property this week in Arlington,VA. I'm surprised that they didn't put the laptops, Blackberrys and folding chairs up for sale on eBay, but perhaps the failure of Sarah Palin to sell that surplus Airplane on eBay (despite the fact that McCain said it sold at a profit) was a lesson to them. Too bad, I'd have liked to run some undelete software on one of those bargain laptops and see what kind of porn the righteous right prefers.

But one thing we aren't seeing is that fantastic wardrobe of Sarah Palin's -- the one she claimed would be returned to the GOP after the campaign. She certainly seemed well and expensively dressed when she was cheerleading for Chandless. Nothing she wore looked like the small town resale shop she claims to frequent, but perhaps I'm being premature. Perhaps it just takes longer to remove the stains of hypocrisy and the odor of mendacity than it does to erase those Blackberrys and hard drives.

This seat's for sale

Let's hear it for young Rod Blagojevich,
Put his state up for sale, oh boyavich!
They surely won't fail
To put him in jail,
Where his cellmate will make him a a toyovich.

REVISIONISM REDUX: PART DEUX

December has become National Revisionist Month for the bloodsuckers.   It started on the Second of December when Charlie Gibson interviewed the War-Criminal-In-Chief, whereupon your enraged Ninja 8pus posted this:

After the WMD argument proved bogus, the Bush administration advanced yet another false premise to justify themselves:  The “pied piper” argument.  The one that states:  “We are fighting terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.”  When intelligence fails, “staying the course” is the cowardly way to avoid owning the mistake.

Within a week, The New York Times published this editorial, calling Bush The Deluder in Chief:

The truth is that Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had been chafing to attack Iraq before Sept. 11, 2001.  They justified that unnecessary war using intelligence reports that they knew or should have known to be faulty ...

Despite it all, Mr. Bush said he will “leave the presidency with my head held high.”   And, presumably, with his eyes closed to all the disasters he is dumping on the American people and his successor.

Hours later, the arrogant Stephen Hadley, responding on behalf of the petulant POTUS, released this statement condemning the NYT editorial:

The New York Times continues to have difficulty acknowledging the undeniable success of the President's decision to surge an additional 30,000 troops into Iraq.  Because of the surge, Iraq is a more stable and secure country.  It is the success of the surge that is allowing American troops to withdraw from Iraq and return home with a record of heroic service and still unheralded success.

Even former administration officials are feeling the basses of their being throb with sacraments of praise for their simpering Byzantine:

We are better off for having woken up to the fact that we were in a war, and, mark my words, no president in the foreseeable future is going to step back from the tenets of the Bush philosophy, which are: better to fight them over there than to fight them here, and we will not wait until dangers fully materialize before we strike," Rove said.

Presidents come and go with a rhythm of lapping waves.  They arrive in tumult and, after their days are done, should leave gracefully, spent of their devotions.  Not this president.   Bush intends to finish as he began ... with attacks against any critic, smears against any opponent, denials of any fact, and falsifications of any record.  He intends to spin his own legacy to the bitter end.

Why should we care?  Because old lies and new infamy condemn us to repeating our mistakes, and our only recourse left, our only justice, is the truthful reckoning of history.  Consider this perspective, The GOP's McCarthy Gene:

In this tale, the real father of modern Republicanism is Sen. Joe McCarthy, and the line doesn't run from Goldwater to Reagan to George W. Bush; it runs from McCarthy to Nixon to Bush and possibly now to Sarah Palin … You demonize the opposition and polarize the electorate to win.

Republicans continue to push the idea that this is a center-right country and that Americans have swooned for GOP anti-government posturing all these years, but the real electoral bait has been anger, recrimination and scapegoating … The party belongs to McCarthy and his heirs - Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Palin.

Not this time.  To prevent a repeat of the Nixon and Bush disasters, we should say “never again” and force the “undead” of McCarthyism to look in the mirror and despair of their works.

World Record Or?.......

Lebanese farmer Khalil Semhat holds his giant potato in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. The enormous vegetable weighs 11.3 kilos (24.9 pounds) and Semhat says he is planning on contacting the Guiness Book of Records.

Perhaps we have finally discovered where all those Iraqi WOMDs went.....

If I was Mr Semhat I'd be getting a radiation check before I made that phone call to Guiness!