This is a front line report on the class war. Edwin Girdle (The Colonel) had an excellent business going until he needed a loan after the shock of 2008. The banks that got billions weren't lending and there was no help anywhere else in the "safety net." His story is compelling and clear. Noted at Jerome Doolittle's blog at SmirkingChimp.com who first posted this and reprinted with Mr. Girdle's permission. Michael Collins

For a week Perry and I had sworn we weren’t going to the show. It was dawn in the bunker overlooking rows of razor wire, trip flares, and land mines. Perry flicked on the radio already set on the only American station – AFVN, “the voice of the American fighting man,” which crackled in over the hills that became mountains as you neared Cambodia. Freddie Hart was singing “Easy Lovin’,” a country song with a catchy pedal steel lick. We trudged away from the post with the rest of the guys and left it to the local militia.

We were not going down to Tan Son Nhut to see the Bob Hope show. No way. It would be hokey – part of the old and we thought dying America we had become alienated from and maybe even hostile to. Our tours were a little more than half over, and the recent education had rendered American traditions into distant, stale absurdities. Who better represented those mummeries than Bob Hope. At least that’s what Perry and I thought then.

“Aww, what the hell. . . . Let’s go.”

“Yeah, okay. . . . But it’ll be cornball.”

“I know, but what the hell. . . .”

We came up with sufficient justifications and excuses, but in retrospect I think we’d been eager to go all along. So we hopped on the back of a deuce-and-a-half for the two-hour or so trip south, crossed the Newport Bridge over the Saigon River, and it was on to Tan Son Nhut. The sprawling base was the command center of the war, but that day, Christmas Eve, it was where Bob Hope would put on his USO show for troops far from home. Over the decades our leaders gave him ample opportunities to perform it.

I wondered if my father had seen him on New Guinea during what he liked to call “the recent unpleasantness.” He heard a Brit use the term after the war, apparently seriously, and used it ever since, not at all seriously. He later told me that he had not seen Bob Hope and that no one went to New Guinea who didn’t have to. But Bob did go there, in 1943, and was in fine form: “What a beautiful swamp you have here. . . . It’s a top-secret base – even the snakes can’t find it. If you wanna hide from your draft board, this is the place to do it.”  Bob knew something about GIs feeling swindled and exiled.

More after the jump.

I always wondered why there were flies painted in the bowls of so many urinals across the globe.

Especially the Dutch and the Danish urinals. (And yes, I realize urinals is not the greatest topic in the world.)

But I really had no idea there was so much subliminal message going on.

Gives new meaning to how dense men can be and are.

Me included.

Here's a list of the top ten Fox News Fails for 2009. What do you think?

Just unreal. When a cop says, "yes I did pull my gun, cuz I got hit by snowballs," I don't know whether to laugh at the whiny little bitch or cry out in rage that cops are afraid of a little frozen water? ~spk

This is a very insightful article about one aspect of our manufacturing ills. The lede:

One of the themes that came up while I was profiling White House manufacturing czar Ron Bloom earlier this fall was managerial talent. A lot of people talk about reviving the domestic manufacturing sector, which has shed almost one-third of its manpower over the last eight years. But some of the people I spoke to asked a slightly different question: Even if you could reclaim a chunk of those blue-collar jobs, would you have the managers you need to supervise them?

This strikes me as a very important question to ask. It’s one thing to bemoan the evisceration of our manufacturing capacity the last several years. One of the frequent excuses has been, “how can we compete with China’s low wages?” Not to mention the other one, “the same thing has happened to Europe.” But as the article makes pretty clear, although Europe has lost some manufacturing jobs, they’ve retained the well paying value-added jobs, quite well.

More after the jump.

This year's theme is "Bach, Around the World" .

Why not listen and chill, in whatever dose your mood prescribes, to wkcr.org(Columbia University) student radio's annual Bach festival streaming over the internet  24 hours a day from 9:55 AM December 21 - Tuesday December 31 6PM...

A schedule  of what's played when is available at the site for those whose interests or schedule are more finally honed.

This is the first in a four-part series on our visits to farmers working with Heifer International in Gicumbi District, Rwanda. Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute Nourishing the Planet blog.

Recovery is a word you hear a lot in Rwanda. From public service announcements on television to billboards—it’s the motto for a place that just 15 years ago was literally torn apart by genocide. More than 250,000 were murdered in 1994 as ethnic strife turned neighbor against neighbor in one of the bloodiest civil wars in African history.

Recovery—and healing—are also things I heard a lot about during my visit with Heifer International Rwanda. “Heifer is helping a recovery process,” explained Dr. Dennis Karamuzi, a veterinarian and the Programs Manager for Heifer. Heifer started its projects in Rwanda in 2000 in a community in Gicumbi District, about an hour outside of Kigali, the capital. This community was especially hard hit by the genocide because it’s close to the border with Uganda. Residents who weren’t killed fled to Kigali for safety.

In the years following the genocide, Gicumbi District is making a comeback thanks, in part, to Heifer International. Heifer International works with farmers all over the world, helping them develop sustainable agriculture practices, including providing livestock and training farmers how raise them.

The Senate's health care bill must be killed.

It is an ungodly mess of errors, loopholes, and massive giveaways. When the American people find out what's actually in this bill, they will revolt. Congress and President Obama have no choice but to do better for health care than this bill.

Sign the petition: the Senate health care bill must be killed.

Their reasons?:

How bad is the bill?

1. Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations -- whether you want to or not
2. If you refuse to buy the insurance, you'll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS
3. After being forced to pay thousands in premiums for junk insurance, you can still be on the hook for up to $11,900 a year in out-of-pocket medical expenses.
4. Massive restriction on a woman's right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court
5. Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-pays
6. Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won't see any benefits -- like an end to discrimination against those with preexisting conditions -- until 2014 when the program begins.
7. Allows insurance companies to charge people who are older 300% more than others
8. Grants monopolies to to drug companies that will keep generic versions of expensive biotech drugs from ever coming to market.
9. No reimportation of prescription drugs, which would save consumers $100 billion over 10 years
10. The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of 4 will rise an average of $1000 a year -- meaning in 10 years, you family's insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.

I could go on, but it should be clear: this is not reform. This is a con job.

For some time now we in St. Maarten have been following the efforts of Sean Paton, former BBC reporter and environmental friend, in Bonaire to stop the Scientology 'training ship' Freewinds from dumping its raw waste water into the ditches and bush lands of Bonaire. For several years now he has been campaigning and posting videos on Youtube on the issue, one of the most recent reports confirmed his predictions and warnings that the practice would contaminate the island's ground water. The fear now is that in the long term, these contaminants will leach through the largely limestone and porous rocks of the island into the sea, last year studies were launched into the possible connections with a die off of spotted moray eels in the coastal waters.

What is truly amazing and astounding is that after Sean reported that wells are now contaminated, the island government of Bonaire have decided to let Freewinds continue the practice for at least another 6 months until a treatment facility can be built. Knowing how slow things move in these Caribbean islands, we have our doubts that this will happen in this time frame. Knowing too how corrupt and self interested most of these island politicians are, I, and many others down this way have some very strong suspicions that Scientology has most likely used its influence and money to obtain this permission, in fact we believe it has been going on for years. Freewinds, for those who are unfamiliar with the ship, is based in the Caribbean because if it entered US waters it would most likely be seized and condemned because of asbestos.

Scientology as we all know, does not like bad press, so it is our hope that by exposing this story here to all you Agonists, that maybe you can help us give them some. I will be sending this story to Huff, C&L and OGM, but we would really appreciate any help from you all to give it more exposure wherever you can.

Note:   It seems that Sean (Paton) removed the two videos, he did inform us that he has been under a great deal of pressure from authorities and that vague threats have been made against him and others. I have reposted them both myself with the expectation they will come after me next to remove them, or request Youtube to, so watch them while you can.

Bonaire-State of emergency Part 1
Bonaire-State of emergency Part 2

Imagine that a neighbor of yours (good guy) decides one day that another neighbor (bad guy) might assault him and damage his home. Then imagine that good guy hires professional hitmen to attack and kill bad guy. Just to be thorough, good guy hires a helicopter with sniper to hover over bad guy's house and shoot a grenade at him the minute he emerges regardless of who is with him. What do you think of good guy?

In asking, who do they think they are, I'm referring to those leaders who retain the notion that the following actions are somehow in the realm of rational and actionable behavior by the United States:

I'm sending troops.

What would you like to see abolished this year?

The Guardian - Christmas has accumulated a whole load of associations that have very little to do with the birth of Jesus: trees, shopping, reindeer. What would you happily ditch?

Or perhaps you'd like a Christmas wish to be granted? And end to poverty, disease or injustice, a change in church dogma, the elimination of one aspect of modern life you could do without.

What would you bin this Christmas?

Several friends who dogged on Avatar have seen it recently. And every one of them tells me, "go see it." Of course, every one of them says, "it is like an alien version of 'Dances With Wolves' and is all about white, post-colonial guilt and race."

Although I haven't seen the movie I have seen 'Dances With Wolves,' 'Dune,' and 'District 9.' There is a reason movies like Avatar use this narrative archetype. And it has nothing to do with race, or post-colonial guilt or being white. The archetype is a common foundational myth, pops up in many national literatures and historical writing for a reason. It's been used by the Turks, the Mongols, the Mayans and others. It's not about colonialism, it's about the fluidity of tribes, a much older human grouping and one that is much more primal.

Tribes have been, historically speaking, very open to newcomers, those not ethnically or racially or even linguistically pure, for lack of a better description. We call that great grouping of people who left North East Asia and spread out across the much of Central Asia, the Near East and Eastern Europe, Mongols, because Mongolian was the principle dialect of the headman of the tribe. But there were many more Turkish speakers in that great agglomeration of peoples than there were Mongols. Why do you think Turkish is the dominant language group between the Bosporus and the Tien Shan? There is even a tale in 12th century Turkish collection of poems called the Dede Korkut that is almost identical in plot to Avatar.

In the end it is a story about who we choose to be, or in modernist terms, human agency, and the fluidity of personal identity. That is why it is such a powerful and oft used narrative archetype. Post colonial racial guilt? Whatever. If there is any vague political intent innate in the archetype it is about freedom. Try reading a history book not written by some anti-Enlightenment right winger from time to time.

Last night Leah and I attended the best live music show I saw this year. Guy Forsyth, Carolyn Wonderland and three members from their respective bands put on a spectacle you had to see and hear live to comprehend. I have no words that suffice.

So the first three music awards for the year, (kind of neat, being the only judge):

Best live show: Guy Forsyth and Carolyn Wonderland' Christmas show at Sam's Burger Joint in San Antonio.

Best male vocalist: Guy Forsyth

Best female vocalist: Carolyn Wonderland.

I'd try to come up with someone to compare these two to, but it would be a step down. So, why bother?

Riffing off my recent language posts here lately, I want to highlight some of the writing exercises I do every week. I call it 'wordwork,' but you might call it writer's calisthenics, exercises designed to break through the fog of morning and get the creative juices flowing. Each day I do several exercises, paint a scene with words, write a brief character sketch, five hundred words handwritten. But once or twice I week I do a random word writing exercise. (Take a 'found' word or phrase and use it in a scene, or character sketch, or sometimes even a blog post.) And one of the best places to find random words or phrases is the Urban Dictionary. If you haven't visited it, I would suggest you put it in your RSS feed. There are some really hilarious modern words and idioms to be found there.

Just today I stumbled across the following: immaculate congestion, defined as: When traffic is backed up for miles on a highway, crawling along -- and then suddenly everyone returns to normal high speeds without passing an accident, stalled car, or road construction. Then there is Elf-Esteem, which I think many of us can relate to: The feeling of being overworked, underappreciated and like you don't exist to others during the holidays while in actuality the season's success depends on you. And my recent favorite, chasing the dragon, which is defined as: Originally in reference to feeding an opium addiction, this can refer to ploughing through any task past the point of diminishing returns, with disregard to one's own health, sanity or well-being.

There are many, many more phrases and words worth mining. What I find fascinating about the Urban Dictionary is there is this whole community effort to catalog the emerging slang, idioms and colloquialisms emerging out of American pop-culture. Pop-culture is certainly a catalyst for language change. And often pop-culture creates some very descriptive, concrete neologisms. This is to be applauded.

Now, I'm not a language purist. I'm not going to go all concern troll-French Academy of Arts and Sciences on you, worrying about how best to preserve the innate character of our mother tongue, English. Why?

Because languages evolve and change. Witnessing that change--and perchance to be a part of it--is what being a writer is about. Who doesn't want to coin a phrase that English-speakers will be using in two hundred years?

If languages are going to change, why not have a front row seat? Better yet, why not step into the ring?

see more Epic Fails

Skiv posted an excellent response to my post about languages. I thought I would share it and my response.

It's one thing to say that "the life and death of languages is much like the change of the seasons: timeless and irrevocable." I don't think that makes a good case for letting it happen, however. Letting some languages die because they don't fit our present framework denies that there may be some future framework in which they are more relevant.

I don’t know if there is a good case or a bad case for letting it happen. I’ve pondered the nature of languages and know one ancient language, speak two modern languages fluently and have dabbled in others. I’ve tried to learn agglutinative languages, Turkish and Korean. I’ve tried to learn at least one analytical language, as well: Chinese. I do hope to one day learn Chinese and also Turkish. But that’s by the by.

The languages I have been most successful with are obviously declensional, Russian, Latin and English, although English has very, very little in the way of declensions any longer. Clearly my mind is ordered such that a languages of declensions is easier for me to ‘get.’ Alas, my attempt at Sanskrit was, well, the synonymity inbuilt in the language is just too difficult for me. At least at the current time. Although I may try again. I think there is something to be said for an educated person to understand the basics of the ancient trifecta of languages. But then, I’m a classicist in that sense.

I suppose that’s my current framework. As for future frameworks where such languages may be more relevant? I can’t speak to that, although there is a clear analogy to be made with preserving all of the species of animals on the planet. But I’m not really sure that analogy is applicable.

More after the jump.

Powerful, historic snowstorm pasting Washington DC metro region

_{(NYT photo)}

What's your best song title for this weekend in Washington?

Perhaps "Send in the Clowns?"

Chill out and post away!

Sanaa | Dec 15/19

Reuters - Yemeni Shi'ite rebels accused the U.S. air force on Tuesday of joining attacks against them, and killing at least 120 people in a raid in the north of the poor Arab state.

"The savage crime committed by the U.S. air force shows the real face of the United States," said the northern rebels, who often report attacks by the Yemeni and Saudi fighter planes, on their website. There was no immediate report of U.S. comment on the alleged incident.

The rebels, who are fighting the Yemeni army and forces of neighboring Saudi Arabia, posted videos on the Internet that appeared to show people trying to clear rubble covering human bodies.

Update Dec 19 - Well it looks like we are bombing Yemen after all, and doing a damn fine job of it.

That headline got your attention, didn't it? Bloggishly irresponsible of me, I know, to alarm people about Morgan Stanley defaulting. The responsible, grown up media handle these things much more professionally. They talk about Morgan Stanley having to "Give Up" five San Francisco office buildings to their lender, because they were bought at the peak of the market and have lost about half of their value. The bank that holds the mortgage on these properties, and which lent the money to Morgan Stanley to buy them in 2007, has been in "negotiations" with Morgan Stanley for months on the "orderly transfer" of these properties to the bank.

I like zombies. I also like zombie stories. From Shaun of the Dead to 28 Days Later to reading 'World War Z,' I find thew whole zombie genre humorous, to say the least.

But I also dig aliens. Of course, they have to be somewhat anthropomorphic aliens like this, please and certainly not aliens like this, which gave me nightmares as a child.

Of course, I recall also those weird silicon based aliens that Captain Kirk and Spock faced in an early episode of Star Trek. If you recall, the alien, which was rather grotesque, found Spock more attractive than Kirk. I imagine Spock was pleased. Regardless, those would be okay, but I really prefer the friendly, ET like visitors.

My friend George has an interesting podcast about aliens today. Give it a listen. I wonder if the abductors use anal probes, a la Eric Cartman?

As for whether aliens exist or not? "We do," as a friend of mine wrote.

"Oh, so you're an alien? Please do elaborate," I replied.

"No, I meant, we exist in the universe, so what's so hard about others existing?" And he's right. It's not that hard to imagine a universe populated by strange creatures, teeming with life. He then quoted Jodie Foster to good effect, "It'd be a waste of space otherwise."

Can you imagine what it would be like to come back as a travel writer 500 or 1,000 years from now and bounce around the galaxy trying strange new foods, meeting strange new races, learning new ways to communicate. And learning the histories of a thousand different cultures?

Wow! I'd vote for some kind of limited immortality in that case. So much to learn and so little time. Of course, immortality brings to mind thoughts of 'the almighty.' As a Buddhist, I'm very comfortable with the idea that there is no afterlife. My biggest problem with it has always been that at some point eternity, be it in heaven or hell, is going to really get boring.

Eternity is a long time.

The snuffing out of the ego, or nirvana, as we Buddhist's call it, well, solves that problem. There are other problems when it comes to aliens and our primarily Western conception of 'God.' Such as, if aliens races do really exists, well, what does that say about God creating us in her image? Who created the aliens then? Granted this is a bit metaphysical.

Obviously I have way too much time on my hands as I prepare for the holidays. I should probably stick to reading science fiction, instead of commenting on it.

Someone asked this question today in a listserve: "someone explain to me in what ways it hurts the US (not Israel) for Iran to have nuclear weapons?"

Now, the underlying assumption to accept here is that Iran is indeed trying to acquire nukes. So, for the sake of argument let’s all agree that that is the case.

If it is, here are some possible reasons: regional hegemony for Iran, in the sense that Iran could shave off some countries, perhaps Shi’a Azerbaijan, offering them nuclear protection from US attack.

Or they could foment unrest in countries with large Shi’a minorities, like Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar and North-East Saudi Arabia. There is ample precedent for this in Lebanon and Syria. A heightened risk of proliferation? A possible Turco-Persian bloc, especially if the Islamists in Turkey keep making inroads, such as they are. It would be a great deal easier for countries to then thumb their noses at US power. And could create a dynamic between the US and China that would not be particularly welcome. A closure of the Persian Gulf to the US navy and a seriously crippling disruption of oil supplies? What else did I miss?

I’m just spit-balling here, and some of this is unlikely, but some of it is plausible. And please, understand, I'm not making any moral or political judgments here. The world is a nasty place at times and nations seek to achieve their aims in often unsavory ways.

Needless to say, I understand Iran’s desire to have nukes, to protect themselves against us. I also understand the flip side. I’ve long been ambivalent about Iran achieving nuclear status, but after giving this a lot of thought recently I think, on the whole, it’s a bad idea. And that’s not even considering how destabilizing such a development would be in regards to Israel.

Is it just me, or does the War on Christmas seem kind of slow this year?

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