Queen of The Playground

Massachusetts hearbreak vs. reality

2010-01-24T13:23:00.002-05:00

Scott Brown posed in Cosmopolitan magazine and offered his daughters up as "available". Martha Coakley either didn't care about getting elected or simple assumed the Democratic machine would do all the footwork for her and wring every vote out of their powerful base. Two worthy candidates equally committed to doing their best for the good citizens of the State, the Nation?

Guess not. And in the midst of incredulous Dems circling around, hand-wringing, and professing confusion, we find Massachusetts voters who succumbed to Scott Brown's excellent media campaign that made him a "star" on the level of George Clooney. Modest, confident, pro-active.

Apparently the people of Massachusetts have had it with doing the right thing for the greater good and decided to go with someone who seemed to "get" their micro level concerns and desires.

Martha Coakley had a weak media campaign. Old school. Negative. Harping. Uninspiring. Sad. She never seemed to be much of a candidate. More like someone along for the ride. So the Dems in Mass and the Democrats in DC as well as free-range political operatives cannot blame anyone but their mopey faced reflections. They picked a weak candidate and thought having one at all was enough.

The assumption seemed to be that Democrats who have been the representatives of the working class historically would be seen as the likely saviors for them again. Cutting bankers down to size. Turning around the mortgage fiasco. Summoning the "power to the people" (case is not a mistake) slogan to ignite a trail of compliant Mass voters.

Not so much. Time to rethink why people there did not see the Democrats as capable of doing the right thing. Too little too late? Or just just too little period.

AVATAR & DEPRESSION

2010-01-13T12:58:00.003-05:00

Let's take a moment to imagine why some viewers are reporting disorientation, sadness & depression after viewing the film.

Haven't we lost the innocence that comes with hoping for an idealistic or even Utopian society/culture? Especially folks after the horror that was 2009. We were ALREADY depressed from the ugliness, the greed, the breech of the cultural code(s) about ethics and altruism.

People seem beyond hope, yes? At the end of their ropes. Plagued with self-doubt. Battered by a loss of civility. Crushed by financial burden.

So after the Avatar experience what might one be expected to feel that is socially acceptable? How can something so subjective as a response to a film have a paradigm, a limit, a correctness?

Through any number of complex social failures, we have nothing but the shit in our laps to contemplate and a vague (perhaps embarrassing), tiny flame of desire and determination that things will get better.

If a movie can do something beyond that and nothing else can, how can we shut down that option? Why should we? And if people are depressed post-viewing, perhaps that is because there is probably a seed of awareness brewing that the way we have been living in this culture is without merit and has killed off the better nature of our angels. And that awareness will help us to move in a very different, wiser direction ultimately. Which is a very good thing.

Happy Holidays and a New Year of Peace & Wisdom

2009-12-12T12:59:00.001-05:00

Afghanistan: BRING THE TROOPS HOME

2009-12-05T16:54:00.004-05:00

I don't pretend to know how difficult it is to be the President of the United States. The man is looking tired and gray so I can safely assume a lot of the job is a pain in the butt.

And speaking of buts...... Sending in more troops whether for 18 months of 3 years will do NOTHING to destroy/weaken/demoralize or shame the Taliban.

How could anyone with access to supposedly sophisticated "intelligence" think that military might will lead to any productive end.

Oh wait, extending and increasing the deployments WILL be good for defense contractors, private soldiers of fortune, private special-ops units, all the manufacturers of special equipment as well as all the basics.

The military can't properly support and supply the troops there now. And where are they going to recruit 30,000 more people who are just as excited as punch to head off to one of the most challenging and scary operations that they could ever imagine?

There will always be terrorists. It's a matter of perspective. To some people, the United States is a terrorist regime. There will always be threats from some countries, from some groups, because we have not evolved into a wiser species by the year 2009, just a more technologically advanced consumer culture. There is still plenty of racism, bigotry, religious intolerance, gender bias, xenophobia and hate to monger.

Might in and of itself cannot make everything right. Because "right" is not universally defined the same by all.

Bring the troops home. Spend those billions on sorely needed domestic needs. A more enlightened foreign policy will do more to subdue radical threats than any military operation.

US Rep. Patrick Kennedy

2009-11-25T18:14:00.002-05:00

Patrick Kennedy is not my rep here in RI but our state is tiny and everything is more intimate. Patrick has been very forthcoming about his periodic battles with substances. And he has been very direct about the fact that he is bi-polar.

Patrick was devoted to his Dad, Senator Ted Kennedy, but did not always support the same causes or candidates. It would be very interesting to me to imagine was his Dad would have said about Patrick's public ideological skirmish with Catholic Bishop Tobin over abortion rights. The Bishop has refused to serve Patrick communion and is suggesting he may need to look elsehwere to find a religion more in line with his abortion rights beliefs.

Patrick also took on some House Republicans in DC last week accusing them of racism, bias and homophobia.

His controversial beliefs have caused plenty of chatter because his language has been so aggressive and fearless. I say his actions are not theatrical but rather based in strong convictions and impatience with bullshit.

Thanks Patrick, long may you bruise and confront those who are out-of -step, unaware, smug, self-serving, disingenuous, lacking in leadership and not representative of the better nature of our angels.

Americans In Love With Murder

2009-11-10T19:25:00.004-05:00

How is it possible that as a "superpower" heavy hitter on planet Earth the United States has more people in prison than any other country AND, whenever possible, we get all excited about killing some of them.

Capital Punishment is nothing if not the most obvious manifestation of devolution. There can be no logical/ethical/rational argument for state-sponsored extermination as some call it.

A country that supports capital punishment and apparently is proud of the fact, is a country that has lost any genuine compassion. We've got technology up the ying yang but we behave like depraved, moronic, small-minded /losers filled with hate.

Whatever crap we dish out, we get back. Heard of karma?

Must Be The Season of The Witch

2009-10-24T14:38:00.005-04:00

If you haven't heard this song for awhile, or if you've never heard it, I recommend a little trip to itunes. I find it satisfying to listen to YEAR ROUND.

And speaking of Halloween, it is my favorite time of the year. Which I think has more to do with the celebration of self-expression than it does with anything pagan but you can't go wrong with a few dedicated pagans. Perhaps it should be pagans with a BIG P.

Halloween gives us the opportunity to be creative at a high level. Think of the lighting possibilities alone! And we get to adopt a persona that may have primal roots or at least something Jung would appreciate. That Jung, quite the wild one, eh?

I not only like manifesting an environment that represents something about my issues or past lives. I LOVE experiencing what others have created as well. I love most haunted houses even if they charge admission. I love looking at the spectacle of hundreds of trick or treaters. Maybe this has something to do with the theory that our intrinsic chi (I don't know if there is another kind) always has been and always will be. We adopt this particular paradigm of human life when we choose to learn some lessons relevant to our evolution. And Halloween might be custom, or it might be cultural idiosyncrasy or it might be a mass halogram. Different from mass hallucination.

So we have Halloween as a perennial fave but now we are all about vampires and aliens judging by our cultural products. I love both. I am very curious about what we can deduce about their current popularity. Political commentary? District 9. Cutural AND political commentary? True Blood. Aliens but all the above? Flashforward. Attractive but potentially spooky alien? V.

Does this mean we are preparing for an opening in our unconscious or just tired of greed and forclosures? Or are aliens already among us infiltrating our cultural process? Likely?

The fullness of the moment

2009-10-05T20:39:00.002-04:00

I was staring out my kitchen window as it got dark today. Facing East I saw the harvest moon. It really looked like it had a face. And it looked perfect. I was thinking about the Neil Young song about the harvest moon.

I kept staring at it. I was imagining what it would take to make the moment ideal, a real stellar memory. But then I had to ask myself why I needed anything else to make the experience anymore intense or special.

Staring at the Moon. Trying to fathom how far away it really is. Hard to imagine people traveled there and stood on the surface and looked back at the Earth. And the color is more like a feeling.

So I let the image bore through my eyes into my brain as well as the feeling that it's perfect right now. Just me in my kitchen. No musical interlude necessary. A perfect moment and a perfect memory.

White Guys Only Need Apply

2009-09-28T20:26:00.007-04:00

It was fairly surreal watching the comedy writing nominees at the Emmys. I thought maybe the abundance of white guys was a joke. Apparently not.

Can it possibly be true that gals can't write funny stuff? Is Tina Fey a freak of nature (or nurture)? And what about guys who aren't white?

I am TOTALLY curious about this. Have these shows hired writers other than white guys and had fighteningly lame results in terms of product? Or is this simply another example of the WHITE MAN'S BURDEN? Oh what a drag, we have to write all the funny TV because no one else can. Is that accurate?

Please help me to develop some understanding and tolerance (if possible) about this. Isn't it Odd to be talking about this in (almost) 2010?

WHAT IS THE DEAL?

The Truman Show

2009-09-18T08:55:00.000-04:00

1. Is it good if a vacuum really sucks?

2. Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand?

3. If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how would we ever know?

4. If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words?

5. Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?

6. Why does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?

7. Why does "fat chance" and "slim chance" mean the same thing?

8. Why do "tug" boats push their barges?

9. Why do we sing "Take me out to the ball game"
when we are already there?

10. Why are they called " stands" when they are made for sitting?

11. Why is it called "after dark" when it really is "after light"?

12. Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?

13. Why are a "wise man" and a "wise guy" opposites?

14. Why do "overlook" and "oversee" mean opposite things?

15. Why is "phonics" not spelled the way it sounds?

16. If work is so terrific, why do they have to pay you to do it?

17. If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

18. If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?

19. If you are cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can you read all right?

20. Why is bra singular and panties plural?

21. Why do you press harder on the buttons of a remote control
when you know the batteries are dead?

22. Why do we put suits in garment bags and garments in a suitcase?

23. How come abbreviated is such a long word?

24. Why do we wash bath towels? Aren't we clean when we use them?

25. Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

26. Why do they call it a TV set when you only have one?

27.Christmas - What other time of the year do you sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of your socks?

28. Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway ?

29. Why is toilet paper tiny squares and tissues big squares ?

2009-09-14T19:34:00.003-04:00

Yes, I took a long hiatus. But I'm back and we'll see what happens. Here is my question: Is it me or are we experiencing a loss of civility as a culture? Granted, there is plenty of crap going around to combust peevishness but I think it's a dangerous stew.

Will we be able to remember how to let a car merge ahead of us? What are we all neurosurgeons on our way to diagnose some brain conumdrum? We can't stop for 30 seconds? I had no idea that everyone I share the road with is so powerful and busy and important that they simply can't be polite as well. It is really asking TOO much. God forbid they have to pee or vomit. The whole "stick up my butt" culture of a-hole behavior will smack itself down like some old school domino trick.

2009-04-21T21:47:00.000-04:00

Community Service for Madoff & AIG hogs

2009-03-24T22:08:00.003-04:00

What would REALLY be a fitting punishment for this level of greed? Greed so voracious it morphed into a primal ugliness barely removed from evil.

A Prison term? I think not. For "white collar" criminals prison is more like camp. Martha Stewart cooked, made ponchos and used glitter-glue for crafts.

Fines? Yeah, right.

How about non-stop, tangible, hard core community service. Like working and living in a homeless shelter or a half-way house for 20 years. No vacation. No private jets, country clubs, or luxury wheels. No Italian custom made suits, shoes or shirts. No bonuses. Minimum wage. Public transportation. Sharing a room. Doing their own laundry & cooking. SERVING OTHERS.

Oh, they should have to wear an ankle bracelet monitored 24/7. And have this message tattooed on their foreheads " I am a depraved loser." In a nice cursive font.

Did IRS hold SEC back from investigating Madoff?

2009-03-13T07:20:00.003-04:00

Madoff investors were dutifully paying taxes to the IRS on all his faux trades based on his reporting to them & the IRS.

The investor's were royally screwed. Madoff lived high off the obese & sweating hog for years but will now, at least personally, pay the hog's reaper but someone has made out just FINE through all of this.

Yup. The IRS was taking in all those taxes. Will those monies be returned to the investors?

Is it really possible that the IRS had no idea these taxes were based on delusional criminality?

Think on that.

GENDER equality? NOT.

2009-03-10T07:37:00.003-04:00

Sunday was International Women's Day. A belated shout out to all women and men with a brain. While driving around on errands after work yesterday I was listening to NPR and heard a news story about an investment firm right here in little Rhode Island. Seems the CEO, a gal, had inflated the pool of dinero that she and her associates handled for clients. The SEC is investigating and has a big stick up their butts about all of it.

I am not condoning her behavior.

But where was the friggin' SEC during the last 7 years when a primo member of the boy's club (and I do mean OLD boys as in always was/always will be), Bernie Madoff, was screwing the life out of senior citizens, non-profits, movie stars, small businesses and charities, eh?

For SEVEN YEARS a financial watch dog in Massachusetts was biting the SEC's ear about the evil incarnate Madoff but they simply continued to let Madoff pee on the bushes until everything was brown, stinking and dead. Oh, except for his off-shore investments, jewelry, home furnishings, antiques, luxury properties and CASH.

Oh, wait. How dim of me. My mistake. Those items belong to his WIFE.

Now that is some gender equality.

Sleep tight. The SEC is paying attention to dipshit little investment firms run by women who inflate the measure of their success.

DECLINE OF CIVILIZATION: What happened to "CIVIL"?

2009-02-16T11:04:00.002-05:00

Ah, capitalism! Remember Beretta (sp?)? He was the detective in some TV show back in the day who was fond of saying, "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."

We are not a country of dimwits. It's more that we might be collectively unconscious. Everyone, regardless of their political affiliation, religious or spiritual beliefs, IQ, social consciousness, ethical or moral views or any other identifier has reaped some benefit from our misguided conceit of entitlement. Not much black and white in the world. Plenty of nuance. We are flawed and human. Lots of gray. Hard to believe it is 2009 and we are still dulled by gray. I thought we were supposed to evolve. We've certainly done that technologically. In every other way we seem pathologically stuck in some primordial tar pit of greed.

But Our greed is not just about money and consumer goods. It's about resources. Our water. Our air. It's about human resources. Treating workers with contempt. Elevating prejudice to a cabinet post. Homeland Security. Raping every average citizen in the most dehumanizing way but taking their jobs and outsourcing them for profit only. Stealing their homes. Denying them basic protections and rights. How many have no health insurance? How many are hungry? How many can't afford their medications? What about the many that applied for and received credit cards they couldn't afford? Mortgages they couldn't afford?

Do they bear any responsibility for their own actions even though they are now victims? Exploited? What was the motivation behind their actions?

It is not just business owners and stockholders to blame for all this. Our government has clearly lost its friggin' mind and has no idea how to govern for the mutual benefit of all. Who holds all those government and quasi-governmental bureaus and agencies accountable? And how? Is anyone paying attention?

We ALL have to pay now and it ain't gonna be pretty. Some of us probably feel victimized by this horrific mess. Some feel self-righteous because they've been the canary in the coal mine of our decay for years. Many are befuddled. More feel betrayed. Have some people been more corrupt or selfish? Certainly. Some have broken every rule of the social contract to the point of evil. Like Bernie Madoff. But we have ALL lost our way.

Is the stimulus plan intended to prop up our capitalist framework a good or bad thing? Who knows. Seems likely it will just delay the inevitable collapse of our systems if implemented as intended. So we pay now or we pay later.

Two things come to mind: Peter Finch in the movie Network encouraging viewers to open their windows and yell "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" And the vision laid out by Marge Piercy in her book Woman on the Edge of Time which the Philadelphia Inquirer describes as about "the possibilities for moral courage in contemporary society."

Ah, moral courage.

ISRAEL IS NOT ACCOUNTABLE TO ANYONE

2009-01-16T11:52:00.002-05:00

Israel has been using the same argument to justify every depraved and violent action of ethnic-cleansing in Gaza, "We were fired upon".

So they have bombed schools, hospitals, universities, private homes, shops, offices, everything in site. Never mind the people. Never mind over 200 children. Animals. Vegetation. Talk about a scorched earth. Apparently since no one has demanded that they prove this is so, they can mow down everything in sight. No countries intervene. No international bodies of law that typically struggle to ensure some thin vestige of humanity have raised much of a protest.

And so Israel feels no compulsion to prove anything. To anyone. Certainly not to the UN who sit like a mosquito on the shoulder of Israel. They do not respect the UN. And the international community seems whipped by Israel, afraid to criticize for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic.

Israel can proceed to destroy all of Gaza carte blanche. I suspect they are doing a pretty good job of it based on what I see and read from independent media sources. I can see the blueprints for the new settlements now. Do you disagree? You can't. Prove otherwise.

I am sure that Israel is even more emboldened that they were when they started this "incursion" Dec. 27 and why not, there are no attempts to stop them!

I think mainstream television broadcast networks have become total apologists for Israel. NBC World News Tonight doesn't even bother to broadcast the number of Palestinian deaths. The networks do not respond (even with canned text) to my email messages asking how they came to make this decision. All the chatter is about Hamas and their pathetic rockets. The terror inflicted by Hamas? Ten deaths in Israel and a few burned cars. Apparently that news is deemed much more worthy of coverage than the deaths of 1,003 Palestinians including over 200 children.

All the networks bemoan the threat Hamas poses to Israel and justify, on their behalf, all of the genocidal actions of Israel. Israelis might have to stop playing video games and run to their basements while a rocket (and I use that word lightly) lands somewhere and makes a whole in the road that one can jump over. Not much of an inconvenience.

Dinner in Israelis homes goes on as usual. There is more than bread on their table unlike in Gaza. There is meat and vegetables and fruit. They even have a table! They can shower with clean water at the end of the day. They can turn on their televisions and computers without giving it a second thought. They can use their telephones. They have free passage anywhere without the humiliation and arbitrariness Paelstinians experience at checkpoints. They have jobs. They still have places to worship and can do so freely. They can shop at all manner of stores. They can continue to go to school and university. They can seek medical care. And ambulances can actually get to them in their homes should they need one. They can go out to dinner. Go on dates. Have family gatherings and outings. THEY can lead their lives.

Some of the broadcast news of damage in Israel actually looks like a skit on some sharply critical, analytical political cable TV show. The damage is so underwhelming in comparison to Gaza that it seems surreal. Seems like a joke. How this be broadcast with a straight face?

Of course we all know Israel is protected by GOD and therefore, this is manifest destiny right? They DESERVE to rid themselves of the "threat"of Hamas at any price. And apparently get rid of all Palestinians as well.

Sleep well my friends. Because we have to wonder when the bloodlust hits Israel again, where they will strike. With impunity.

NBC NEWS not broadcasting Gaza death totals

2009-01-15T20:26:00.002-05:00

Perhaps NBC World News Tonight with Brian Williams thinks that if they do not broadcast the actual death totals people will forget what a lopsided bamboozle is being seared into their brains.

As of today 1,003 Palestinians have been killed and 4,482 have been injured.

As far as I have been able to determine there have been 10 Israeli deaths. Seven of those killed were soldiers. Supposedly some died in "friendly fire" accidents.

How is it possible that Hamas is the powerful and dangerous threat Israel claims when their much feared rockets have managed to kill 10 people?

Look at the totals above and ask yourself what is really going on. All of today's talk about a cease fire centers around Hamas stopping the friggin' rockets. Apparently the Palestinian death toll and the fact that today Israel bombed the United Nations refugee camp, and has so far destroyed universities, bombed ambulances and killed their drivers, and killed over 200 children is not even a topic of conversation for the cease fire!

Who has distributed the Kool Aid people? HAs everyone been brainwashed? We are witnessing genocide.

DOES ISRAEL PLAN TO KILL EVERYONE IN GAZA?

2009-01-09T20:18:00.004-05:00

I feel like I live in a parallel universe. What is going on in Gaza? Is there any indication whatsoever that Israel has any intention of doing anything other than kill every human and possibly ever other form of life in Gaza as well?

Other than the UN and demonstrators around the globe, is anyone stepping in to say STOP this genocide? I don't see them. I don't hear them. And why not?

This is the ugliest and most foul manifestation of surrealism imaginable.

Pardon my extreme cynicism but it seems to me that even if Hamas said to the Zionist powerblock in Israel, "OK, we're done with launching our tinkertoy rockets. You win." That Israel would say, "We can't trust you so we don't believe you" and the IDF would just keep killing everyone in Gaza. Every woman, child, man, olive tree, dog, cat, flower, bird, vegetable plant, and possibly insect as well. Until there is nothing but the earth which they will then burn.

The smell will be horrific for months but then they will bulldoze the topsoil and frontload it out of there and start building swank settlements while the rest of the world has some faint memory that something else used to be on that land.

And then they will set their sights on anywhere else where Palestinians live in community.

The depravity behind the justification for ethnic cleansing/apartheid/genocide is the irrefutable prove that pure evil exists.

Jennifer Lowenstein on Israel's intentions for Gaza and Palestine

2009-01-02T22:14:00.003-05:00

January 1 , 2009
Israel Has No Intention of Granting a Palestinian State
If Hamas Did Not Exist
By JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN
http://www.counterpunch.com/loewenstein01012009.html
Let us get one thing perfectly straight. If the wholesale mutilation and degradation of the Gaza Strip is going to continue; if Israel’s will is at one with that of the United States; if the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and all the international legal agencies and organizations spread across the globe are going to continue to sit by like hollow mannequins doing nothing but making repeated “calls” for a “ceasefire” on “both sides”; if the cowardly, obsequious and supine Arab States are going to stand by watching their brethren get slaughtered by the hour while the world’s bullying Superpower eyes them threateningly from Washington lest they say something a little to their disliking; then let us at least tell the truth why this hell on earth is taking place.
The state terror unleashed from the skies and on the ground against the Gaza Strip as we speak has nothing to do with Hamas. It has nothing to do with “Terror”. It has nothing to do with the long-term “security” of the Jewish State or with Hizbullah or Syria or Iran except insofar as it is aggravating the conditions that have led up to this crisis today. It has nothing to do with some conjured-up “war” – a cynical and overused euphemism that amounts to little more the wholesale enslavement of any nation that dares claim its sovereign rights; that dares assert that its resources are its own; that doesn’t want one of the Empire’s obscene military bases sitting on its cherished land.

This crisis has nothing to do with freedom, democracy, justice or peace. It is not about Mahmoud Zahhar or Khalid Mash’al or Ismail Haniyeh. It is not about Hassan Nasrallah or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These are all circumstantial players who have gained a role in the current tempest only now that the situation has been allowed for 61 years to develop into the catastrophe that it is today. The Islamist factor has colored and will continue to color the atmosphere of the crisis; it has enlisted the current leaders and mobilized wide sectors of the world’s population. The primary symbols today are Islamic – the mosques, the Qur’an, the references to the Prophet Muhammad and to Jihad. But these symbols could disappear and the impasse would continue.
There was a time when Fatah and the PFLP held the day; when few Palestinians wanted anything to do with Islamist policies and politics. Such politics have nothing to do with primitive rockets being fired over the border, or smuggling tunnels and black-market weapons; just as Arafat’s Fatah had little to do with stones and suicide bombings. The associations are coincidental; the creations of a given political environment. They are the result of something entirely different than what the lying politicians and their analysts are telling you. They have become part of the landscape of human events in the modern Middle East today; but incidentals wholly as lethal, or as recalcitrant, deadly, angry or incorrigible could just as soon have been in their places.

Strip away the clichés and the vacuous newspeak blaring out across the servile media and its pathetic corps of voluntary state servants in the Western world and what you will find is the naked desire for hegemony; for power over the weak and dominion over the world’s wealth. Worse yet you will find that the selfishness, the hatred and indifference, the racism and bigotry, the egotism and hedonism that we try so hard to cover up with our sophisticated jargon, our refined academic theories and models actually help to guide our basest and ugliest desires. The callousness with which we in indulge in them all are endemic to our very culture; thriving here like flies on a corpse.

Strip away the current symbols and language of the victims of our selfish and devastating whims and you will find the simple, impassioned and unaffected cries of the downtrodden; of the ‘wretched of the earth’ begging you to cease your cold aggression against their children and their homes; their families and their villages; begging you to leave them alone to have their fish and their bread, their oranges, their olives and their thyme; asking you first politely and then with increasing disbelief why you cannot let them live undisturbed on the land of their ancestors; unexploited, free of the fear of expulsion; of ravishment and devastation; free of permits and roadblocks and checkpoints and crossings; of monstrous concrete walls, guard towers, concrete bunkers, and barbed wire; of tanks and prisons and torture and death. Why is life without these policies and instruments of hell impossible?

The answer is because Israel has no intention of allowing a viable, sovereign Palestinian state on its borders. It had no intention of allowing it in 1948 when it grabbed 24 per cent more land than what it was allotted legally, if unfairly, by UN Resolution 181. It had no intention of allowing it throughout the massacres and ploys of the 1950s. It had no intention of allowing two states when it conquered the remaining 22 per cent of historic Palestine in 1967 and reinterpreted UN Security Council Resolution 248 to its own liking despite the overwhelming international consensus stating that Israel would receive full international recognition within secure and recognized borders if it withdrew from the lands it had only recently occupied.

It had no intention of acknowledging Palestinian national rights at the United Nations in 1974, when –alone with the United States—it voted against a two-state solution. It had no intention of allowing a comprehensive peace settlement when Egypt stood ready to deliver but received, and obediently accepted, a separate peace exclusive of the rights of Palestinians and the remaining peoples of the region. It had no intention of working toward a just two-state solution in 1978 or 1982 when it invaded, fire-bombed, blasted and bulldozed Beirut so that it might annex the West Bank without hassle. It had no intention of granting a Palestinian state in 1987 when the first Intifada spread across occupied Palestine, into the Diaspora and the into the spirits of the global dispossessed, or when Israel deliberately aided the newly formed Hamas movement so that it might undermine the strength of the more secular-nationalist factions.

Israel had no intention of granting a Palestinian state at Madrid or at Oslo where the PLO was superseded by the quivering, quisling Palestinian Authority, too many of whose cronies grasped at the wealth and prestige it gave them at the expense of their own kin. As Israel beamed into the world’s satellites and microphones its desire for peace and a two-state solution, it more than doubled the number of illegal Jewish settlements on the ground in the West Bank and around East Jerusalem, annexing them as it built and continues to build a superstructure of bypass roads and highways over the remaining, severed cities and villages of earthly Palestine. It has annexed the Jordan valley, the international border of Jordan, expelling any ‘locals’ inhabiting that land. It speaks with a viper’s tongue over the multiple amputee of Palestine whose head shall soon be severed from its body in the name of justice, peace and security.

Through the home demolitions, the assaults on civil society that attempted to cast Palestinian history and culture into a chasm of oblivion; through the unspeakable destruction of the refugee camp sieges and infrastructure bombardments of the second Intifada, through assassinations and summary executions, past the grandiose farce of disengagement and up to the nullification of free, fair and democratic Palestinian elections Israel has made its view known again and again in the strongest possible language, the language of military might, of threats, intimidation, harassment, defamation and degradation.

Israel, with the unconditional and approving support of the United States, has made it dramatically clear to the entire world over and over and over again, repeating in action after action that it will accept no viable Palestinian state next to its borders. What will it take for the rest of us to hear? What will it take to end the criminal silence of the ‘international community’? What will it take to see past the lies and indoctrination to what is taking place before us day after day in full view of the eyes of the world? The more horrific the actions on the ground, the more insistent are the words of peace. To listen and watch without hearing or seeing allows the indifference, the ignorance and complicity to continue and deepens with each grave our collective shame.

The destruction of Gaza has nothing to do with Hamas. Israel will accept no authority in the Palestinian territories that it does not ultimately control. Any individual, leader, faction or movement that fails to accede to Israel’s demands or that seeks genuine sovereignty and the equality of all nations in the region; any government or popular movement that demands the applicability of international humanitarian law and of the universal declaration of human rights for its own people will be unacceptable for the Jewish State. Those dreaming of one state must be forced to ask themselves what Israel would do to a population of 4 million Palestinians within its borders when it commits on a daily, if not hourly basis, crimes against their collective humanity while they live alongside its borders? What will suddenly make the raison d’etre, the self-proclaimed purpose of Israel’s reason for being change if the Palestinian territories are annexed to it outright?

The lifeblood of the Palestinian National Movement flows through the streets of Gaza today. Every drop that falls waters the soil of vengeance, bitterness and hatred not only in Palestine but across the Middle East and much of the world. We do have a choice over whether or not this should continue. Now is the time to make it.
Jennifer Loewenstein is the Associate Director of the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She can be reached at amadea311@earthlink.net

Commentary on Gaza from Amira Hass, from Haaretz

2009-01-01T12:34:00.003-05:00

HOW WE LIKE OUR LEADERS

By Amira Hass, Israeli journalist
www.haaretz.com

Who is Amira Hass?

For those quick to label criticism of Israeli military offensives
"anti-Semitic," with little recognition of the Jews' special
suffering during World War II, consider this: Hass is not only an
Israeli but both of her parents are Holocaust camp survivors. Yet
she has gone on to become the most prominent Israeli journalist to
make it her mission to report as often as possible from Gaza and
the West Bank - breaking bans and earning the wrath of both Israeli
and Palestinian officials. She earned headlines in this regard just
in the past month.

Hass was born in Jerusalem, and studied the history of Nazism at
Hebrew University. She joined Haaretz in 1989 and began living
nearly fulltime in Gaza or Ramallah starting in 1993. She earned
the Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute
in 2000, among other international journalism prizes. She now lives
in Ramallah.

Earlier this year, now a regular Haaretz columnist, Hass traveled
to Gaza by boat to demonstrate her opposition to the Israeli
blockade. On December 1, she was ordered to leave by Hamas, and
arrested by Israeli police on her return to Israel."

HOW WE LIKE OUR LEADERS

This isn't the time to speak of ethics, but of precise
intelligence. Whoever gave the instructions to send 100 of our
planes, piloted by the best of our boys, to bomb and strafe enemy
targets in Gaza is familiar with the many schools adjacent to those
targets - especially police stations. He also knew that at exactly
11:30 A.M. on Saturday, during the surprise assault on the enemy,
all the children of the Strip would be in the streets - half just
having finished the morning shift at school, the others en route to
the afternoon shift.

This is not the time to speak of proportional responses, not even
of the polls that promise a greater share of Knesset seats to the
mission's architects. This is, however, the time to speak of the
voters' belief the operation will succeed, that the strikes are
precise and the targets justified.

Take, for example, Imad Aqel Mosque in Jabalya refugee camp, bombed
and strafed shortly before midnight on Sunday. These are the names
of the glorious military victory we achieved there - Jawaher, age
4; Dina, age 8; Sahar, age 12; Ikram, age 14; and Tahrir, age 17,
all sisters of the Ba'lousha family, all killed in a "precise"
strike on the mosque. Another three sisters, a 2-year-old brother
and their parents were injured. Twenty-four neighbors were wounded
and five homes and three stores destroyed. This part of the
military victory did not open our television or radio news
broadcasts yesterday morning, nor did they appear on many Israeli
news Web sites.

This is the time to speak about the detailed maps in the hands of
IDF commanders, and about the Shin Bet advisers who know the exact
distance between the mosque and nearby homes. This is the time to
discuss the drone planes and the hot air balloons fitted with
advanced cameras floating over the Strip day and night, filming
everything.

This is the time to rely on legal advisers studying the operation
to find the right phrasing to justify "collateral damage." Time to
praise Foreign Ministry spokespeople who in their polished
language, with their elegant South African or charmant Parisien
accents, say it is the fault of Hamas, which uses neighborhood
mosques for its own purposes.

Talk of double standards has always been moot. Maybe there was a
huge weapons store in the mosque. Maybe Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
militants met there every night and from there planned to launch
their upgraded fighter jets.

Where does the IDF Chief of Staff sit when he draws up war plans?
Not in the Sahara, or even in the Negev. What would happen if
someone blew themselves up at the entrance to Tel Aviv's
Cinematheque movie theater, and those who sent him said sorry, but
he was headed for the Defense Ministry down the street?

This is not the time to recall long-forgotten history lessons to
say this is not the way to topple a government. Nor is it the time
to make rational recommendations for balanced statesmanship. The
time for such things has passed, along with the New Order we once
arrogantly tried to establish in Lebanon, which only brought us
Hezbollah. Along with the Orientalists' plans to reduce the
popularity of the PLO, which only paved the way for the emergence
of a militant Islamic nationalist movement.

The time of such recommendations has passed, along with the grab of
Palestinian lands and hyperactive construction of settlements in
the Oslo era, which only laid the cornerstone for the second
intifada and the fall of Fatah.

The era of reason and judgment died long ago, even before the
targeted assassinations of Fatah activists in the West Bank, which
soon turned into shooting attacks on soldiers and the emergence of
another few thousand young people taking up arms, not to mention
the phenomenon of suicide bombers.

It is never the right time to say "we told you so," because once it
is possible to say those words, they are already invalid. We cannot
revive the dead, nor repair the damage caused by arrogance and
megalomania.

This is the time to speak of our own satisfaction and enjoyment.
Satisfaction from tanks once again raising and lowering their
barrels in preparation for a ground attack, satisfaction from our
leaders' threatening finger-waving at the enemy. That's how we like
our leaders - calling up reservists, sending pilots to bomb our
enemies and manifesting national unity, from Baruch Marzel to Tzipi
Livni, Netanyahu to Barak to Lieberman.

Exhausted by Negativity

2008-12-24T14:05:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure when it happened but I find myself out of patience with negativity. I can no longer pretend that hearing such thoughts and opinions in excess has no bearing on my well being or on my world view.

Having said that, I am not some wide-eyed optimist. I like to vent. It might be my imagination of course but it just seems the balance is off. More bad chat than good. I feel like all the energy of the negative has taken up residence in my colon. Upper and lower.

I propose a brief experiment. Not scientific but so what. Let's start small. Can we go 24 hours without complaining? Not about the weather. Not about the state of the world. Not about our jobs. Or lack thereof. Not about our neighbors. Or our families. Prices. Our loss of radiant skin.

I'll give it a whirl and report back. If you try, spill the beans on the experience.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

2008-12-17T15:12:00.003-05:00

GREETINGS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL! Click to enjoy my video shout out.

Stronger Than Their Walls: screenings

2008-12-10T21:18:00.002-05:00

Stronger Than Their Walls Guilty Though Proven Innocent
(watch trailer at strongerthantheirwalls.com).

A documentary about struggles for justice in Rhode Island. RI law allows people on probation to be incarcerated for crimes for which they have been found innocent or for which the charges have been dismissed. This documentary follows the story of several men who were presumed guilty and never given a fair chance to demonstrate their innocence. The families of these imprisoned men take the issue to the Rhode Island Statehouse, where they tell their stories in an effort to reform the law.Stronger : is currently organizing screenings around Rhode Island. Please contact (strongerthantheirwalls@gmail.com) to arrange a screening--at your house, your church, your community center, anywhere.
Watch the full movie at a screening near you: check (strongerthantheirwalls.com )for new dates.

Providence South Side, Tuesday, 9th at 6:00 RI Family Life Center, 841 Broad Street

Providence North Side, Tuesday, Dec 9th at 7:30 Mount Hope Neighborhood Association, 142 Camp Street

Downtown Providence, Thursday, December 18 at 7:00 Black Repertory Theatre, 276 Westminster St. with panel discussion sponsored by Rhode Island Council of the Humanities

Newport Sunday, January 4 at noon, St. Paul's Church, 12 Marlborough Street

Storytelling at Risk?

2008-12-06T15:35:00.004-05:00

Curiously enough the MIT Media Lab has paired up with some current & former Hollywood industry people to create the Center for Future Storytelling.

David Kirkpatrick who once headed Paramount Pictures motion picture group is one of the founders of the experiment and currently the CEO of Plymouth Rock Studios, a 240 acre studio complex featuring 14 soundstages, a 10 acre backlot and the MIT Storytelling Lab that is being constructed in Plymouth, MA

The group formed out of concern that text messages, cell phones and the constant bombardment of visual chatter and changing the integrity of narrative.

Starting in 2010 MIT faculty members, grad students, interns, and those working in the worlds of films and books will gather to experiment with and study the future of digital delivery and the way innovation in the field might erode or further compromise storytelling as we know it today.

The shared goal is to keep meaning alive in 21st-century storytelling.

I was just having a conversation this morning with a friend about how the devices of our contemporary life seem to be fracturing our abilities to focus and pay attention. Odd for me to say I suppose since I have been diagnosed with ADD but I see this happening to people I know who did not exhibit symptoms previously.

It is troubling to think that our storytelling might morph into more action oriented products or perhaps highly edited work that keeps our eyes in gear. But what about our brains? Our imagination? Memory?

What do you think?

BEING GRATEFUL

2008-11-24T15:01:00.006-05:00

Apparently Thanksgiving brings up all sorts of issues for people. Maybe there is some ambivalence about family dynamics. Perhaps there are food issues. What if you're a vegan and everyone in your family will be doing heavy turkey consumption. Maybe there are political differences and after the election, emotions might be volatile. Travel could be a pain in the butt.

But let's put all those possibilities (and more) aside for a few. What about all the things we can truly be thankful for? Doesn't it seem manageable to actually pay attention to, at the heart, all the swell manifestations of grace that have rained down on us?

When I am feeling overwhelmed or depressed or anxious, I start the mantra of gratitude for myself. I just take a minute to list every little thing, every big thing and all the stuff that can't be sized.

I might do this in traffic. When I can't sleep. When I'm peeved.

And if you open yourself to the process, you will be amazed at what you come up with. And trust me on this, if you are not in the habit of doing this simple practice, you will be awestruck by how much better you feel.

If you scroll all the way down to the bottom, I have a related piece.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Another I TOLD YOU SO. Almost.

2008-11-19T21:26:00.003-05:00

Shortly after Obama picked Biden as his number two, I had the feeling as prez he'd ask Hillary to be Secretary of State.

Naysayers up the yin-yang.

You wait and see.

The Emperess has no clothes!

2008-11-11T10:27:00.004-05:00

Some of you have heard me RANT on this before but I swear the problem is getting much worse. I cannot find any clothes or shoes to buy and I am about to throw open the window (just like in NETWORK) and scream, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!".

I am not 14. I am not 25 and skinny. I am not a matronly suburban Volvo driving Mom. I am not a girly girl. I am not willing to spend hundreds of dollars to look like the Olsen Twins because I do not appreciate their aesthetic.

Where in hades (should that be capitalized?) are the designers and manufacturers for middle-aged gals who are not frumpy, not skinny, not rich, somewhat hip and who prefer not to look like an extra on Gossip Girl?

Chicos is weird in every sense of the word. J Jill has a better style but the line is oddly cut.

What about shoes that are comfortable AND stylin' and cost less than $300 (sorry Linda!)? I am not wearing high heels every day! Nor do I want, in a casual shoe, a Mary Jane strap or a friggin' bow! The gap between the high fashion option (which I would need to wear approximately once every 2 years) and the day-to-day utilitarian and "old & tired" style is massive.

I am thinking of finding a lawyer willing to file a class action suit against all the major design houses.

I have threatened this before but I may have to really take action on this: I will write and repeat an affirmation to receive a huge motherlode of cash. I will then seek out some disillusioned & demoralized RISD grad who is currently designing some underwhelming crap for Old Navy and/or it's big sister The Gap, sit down with them, design some stuff, find a FAIR TRADE cooperative (in this country and no, that is not an oxymoron) to make the stuff, identify the one textile factory left in this country, but some fabric & "stuff", make it and sell it from kiosks in supermarkets, at libraries, at gas stations, at Farmer's markets, at movie houses, at restaurants and bars and possibly at temples/churches/other spiritual joints.

Ditto for shoes & boots. We might have to go with an all vegan line but my feet like to breathe so I'll have to research some options that will not set off a firestorm.

The label will be called BRANDLESS.

Nothing will cost more than $250.00.

I am accepting advance orders at this time for delivery within the next 5 years.

IN THE MEANTIME, if you have any tips for where I can shop, HOLLA!

I TOLD you so!

2008-11-05T00:47:00.002-05:00

As I listened to his acceptance speech I had a broader, deeper understanding of the message and the intention of this community organizer. The presidency is just the obvious vehicle. This man through his vision and intention (yes, I'm using it again) has been challenging us to shift our mired hearts and minds out of a stinking, dark, claustrophobic, tar pit of despair & ugliness.

He's offering us a hand to climb out of a very lonely place. As individuals, as a country. Country as community. No need to blame anyone. We all had a part in creating the environment that brought us to our knees in sadness.

We diminished our compassion for others and for ourselves. Dulled our warrior minds, making it easier for hordes of self-serving emperors to suck the life out of us as they ran naked through our streets vandalizing the American Dream, the Golden Rule, the better nature of our angels.

This is a shift from the negative to the positive. From lack to prosperity. From holding people down to lifting them up. But this isn't about a savior. This man is a community organizer. Fundamental principle: Don't do for others what they can do for themselves. But he will bring us to the table. Turn on a light. Offer leadership and resources. But he expects us to move beyond our learned passivity fueled by consumerism into a place of creation and action. We need to become participants in creating the community we want, the country we want, the world we want.

This man is bringing us to a powerful place. Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually. Get ready for the shift.

Is Originalism surreal or is it me?

2008-11-04T13:49:00.005-05:00

Maybe a year ago I saw Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia profiled on 60 Minutes. Leslie Stahl was questioning him on Originalism and I thought the whole concept was curious but I was more curious about other aspects of his being.

Recently I saw a repeat of the segment and I found myself thinking a lot about the concept which seems, on some levels, to be peculiar (this is my most benign response) and fairly surreal on others.

I came across this info on the topic on Legal Theory Lexicon "All the concepts that fit."

If you already have an opinion, please share it. If not, please read...digest...respond. In other words, discuss.

Introduction: There are many different theories of constitutional interpretation, but the most controversial and also perhaps the most influential is "originalism"--actually a loosely-knit family of constitutional theories. The idea that courts would look to evidence from the constitutional convention, the ratification debates, The Federalist Papers, and the historical practice shortly after ratification of the Constitution of 1789 (or to equivalent sources for amendments) is an old one. This post provides a very brief introduction to "originalism" that is aimed at law students (especially first-year law students) with an interest in legal theory.
Originalism is not just an ivory tower theory. It has had a profound influence on the practice of constitutional interpretation and the political contest over the shape of the federal judiciary. President Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork (an avowed originalist) was one key moment--with his defeat by the democrats seen as a political rejection of originalism. The current Supreme Court has at least two members who seem strongly influenced by originalist constitutional theory--Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas and two others, John Roberts and Samuel Alito who may also be receptive to originalist arguments. In the late 1980s Justice Antonin Scalia suggested that originalists should shift their attention from "the original intentions of the framers" to the "original public meaning of the constitutional text."

The New Originalism The final chapter of the originalism debate in legal theory has yet to be written--and perhaps it never will be. But one last set of developments is particularly important. In the 70s and early 80s, originalism was strongly associated with conservative judicial politics and conservative legal scholars. But in the late 1980s and in the 1990s, this began to change. One of the important moves was the shift from "original intentions" to "original public meaning," but two developments were key. First, Bruce Ackerman's work on constitutional history suggested the availability of "left originalism" that maintained the commitment to the constitutional will of "We the People" but argued that the constitution included a New Deal constitutional moment that legitimated the legacy of the Warren Court. (Ackerman does not call himself an "originalist," but many of Ackerman's former students do work that is implicitly or explicitly originalist.) Second, Randy Barnett (the leading figure in libertarian legal theory) embraced originalism in an influential article entitled An Originalism for Nonoriginalists. The most recent development in this dynamic is Jack Balkin's attempt to reconcile originalism with living constitutionalism.

The original-meaning version of originalism emphasizes the meaning that the Constitution (or its amendments) would have had to the relevant audience at the time of its adoptions. How would the Constitution of 1789 have been understood by an ordinary adult citizen at the time it was adopted? Of course, the same sources that are relevant to original intent are relevant to original meaning. So, for example, the debates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia may shed light on the question how the Constitution produced by the Convention would have been understood by those who did not participate in the secret deliberations of the drafters. But for original-meaning originalists, other sources become of paramount importance. The ratification debates and Federalist Papers can be supplemented by evidence of ordinary usage and by the constructions placed on the Constitution by the political branches and the states in the early years after its adoption. The turn to original meaning made originalism a stronger theory and vitiated many of the powerful objections that had been made against original-intentions originalism.

This sets the stage for what is sometimes called “the New Originalism” and also is called “Original Meaning Originalism.” Whatever the actual origins of this theory, the conventional story identifies Antonin Scalia as having a key role. As early as 1986, Scalia gave a speech exhorting originalists to “change the label from the Doctrine of Original Intent to the Doctrine of Original Meaning.” The phrase “original public meaning” seems to have entered into the contemporary theoretical debates in the work of Gary Lawson with Steven Calabresi as another “early adopter.” The core idea of the revised theory is that the original meaning of the constitution is the original public meaning of the constitutional text.

We are already beginning to see originalists coming to grips with the relationship between original meaning and precedent--both in the narrow sense of Supreme Court decisions and the broader sense of the settled practices of the political branches of government and the states. Some originalists have argued that as a general rule, constitutional actors should give follow original meaning, even if it would conflict with longstanding historical practice or settled precedent. Other originalists argue that precedent and/or historical practice can trump original meaning in specified circumstances.

2008-11-04T13:46:00.002-05:00

Legal Theory Lexicon
"All the concepts that fit."

2008-11-02T22:51:00.003-05:00

2008-10-15T22:19:00.000-04:00

2008-10-15T21:36:00.001-04:00

Stop fretting! Obama will be president (or is it President?)

2008-10-15T20:21:00.000-04:00

Last night in yoga class some gals were filled with anxiety about the election. Apparently I was at that very moment chosen to receive a message from the great collective unconscious or else from the "state" of shared energy with the luminous strings that Carlos Castenada used to write about.

Here's the message I received swiftly and with no doubt: Obama is a shoe-in. Though I am extrapolating because there no words used in this visitation. It was as if a small diamond had been propelled out of a pulsing particle accelerator (much like a Top Fuel Funny Car's burnout)) that was aimed at my brain and the diamond was moving so fast and was cut so sharp by some robotic laser dervish that all I felt was a massive electrical surge (which I would have appreciated more if it lasted longer) that wordlessly planted the idea OBAMA IS A SHOE-IN throughout my physical plant.