Bumper sticker of the week: The longer I live, the more doubt I have.
Quote of the week: ''Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for Him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you.'' John Ashcroft, eminent theologian and religion expert turned Attorney General. (With these kind of people in charge, heaven help us.)
Election year. That's always good for a few laughs.
Let's attack Iraq: In our ongoing battle against Evil, Iraq has surfaced as the leading contender for our undivided militaristic attention. We are once again poised to blow them into oblivion. That they haven't done anything seems to be irrelevant. Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and W. himself are all busy revving up the public in a hysteric display of American aggression, all predicated on the assumption that killing people will somehow convince evil doers who kill people that they shouldn't kill people. What a perverted mess.
A lot of companies are dumping Martin Luther King Day as a holiday that they recognize and give their employees off. This is the only holiday that remotely celebrates the accomplishments of a minority person who gave his life to promote human dignity and equality for everyone, regardless of race. Why not pick one of the other holidays if you feel the need to cheat your employees out of a day off? Why not Veterans Day, or Thanksgiving, or New Year's? The answer, of course, is obvious. They know they can get away with it with few complaints. I think it is wrong. It clearly gives the wrong message, one that is ever so subtly racist. It is a message that cannot be explained away by management just wanting to cheat their employees out of additional benefits.
Have you ever noticed how there are some places where you just feel better, more relaxed, more serene? It might be in the mountains, at the beach, in your garden, in the woods. You somehow know this is a special place that helps you, gives you strength, renews you. If you find such a place, do not disregard it. In fact, buy it and sell it for a huge profit to some other damn fool who believes this crap.
The American Olympic Games has been quite an extravaganza. I am particularly struck by the amount of patriotism and pro-war sentiment being displayed, as well as the unabashed and decadent buying of the games by U.S. corporations. There are ten minutes of commercials, five minutes of patriotic rah-rah, and two minutes of actual competition. The whole scene seems more like a carnival for capitalists than a venue for amateur athletes to compete in. Between the commercials and flag waving, the performance of the athletes seems almost irrelevant, if it weren't for the alchemy of the gold medals, which can quickly turn to millions in endorsements and commercials. They busily chomp down McBurgers, not particularly known for their health enhancing qualities, wash them down with calorie laden Coke, the preferred Olympic beverage, or Budweiser, the King of the Olympics, and head for the slopes, or the ice, to compete, as they say, for the glory of it. The athletes have become more corporate logos than amateur competitors. The Olympic participants are the most highly paid amateur athletes in the world. Another fine capitalist adventure. OlympicLand, where gold turns to paper.
Building a relationship is a lot like building a house. If you take shortcuts, you usually end up paying for it later on.
Presidential speech:--
Left teleprompter: We are the greatest nation in the world.--
Middle teleprompter: Free-dumb is our goal.--
Right teleprompter: Killing terrorists is our stra-toe-gee.--
Middle teleprompter: Thank yu. God bless yu.
After watching all the drug commercials on TV, I think I'm undermedicated.