Here's another author you should look up if you can muster the cahones...
Guy by the name of Robert Pape in his recent book, "Dying to Win: the Logic of Suicide Terrorism," take a really firm look at the mentality of our newest "enemy."
The book is so good partly because of the amount of information the man draws from; a database that includes EVERY suicide-bomb attack from 1980-2004.
The conclusions are such that you could probably guess them if you have half a brain (basically that these bombers attack in order to get democratic powers OUT of certain areas, and that invading them only generates more not less. As in Iraq, in which the number of bombings has doubled every year that we have been there.), but the way in which he puts these things together is really well done.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Spacious Cries
Ever feel like a traitor when you are singing that song? Like the writer of America The Beautiful will come out of her(Kathie Bates) grave and smite you?
We were singing it recently and several things struck me...
Spacious Skies-- Which we have polluted and chemically treated
Amber waves of Grain, Above the fruited Plain-- ground and ground waters which we have poisoned and chemically altered so that it has become dependent on man made synthetic fertilizers, fruits and crops that are treated with hormones and pesticides so that we have to wash what we get from the stores or risk strange ailments (do you realize we didn't have to do that since the beginning of TIME??)
Purple Mountain Majesty-- which we bring low with unrestricted strip mining which causes flooding and again poisonous ground water with un-treated runoff
Alabaster Cities--have you SEEN LA recently?
I realize she only wrote the song in 1913, but so much has become perverted in that time I feel like the worst kind of person singing the song. We as a nation were given a glorious gift in this country and we have squandered it in the name of progress and the greed of the elite.
In reality there is nothing worth saving out of our government except the most precious original ideals that were first laid down. It was a good idea, but just like every other thing in this whole country we have perverted and destroyed it to the point of being unrecognizable.
God's Grace sure better be shining on us... cause we freakin need it...
We were singing it recently and several things struck me...
Spacious Skies-- Which we have polluted and chemically treated
Amber waves of Grain, Above the fruited Plain-- ground and ground waters which we have poisoned and chemically altered so that it has become dependent on man made synthetic fertilizers, fruits and crops that are treated with hormones and pesticides so that we have to wash what we get from the stores or risk strange ailments (do you realize we didn't have to do that since the beginning of TIME??)
Purple Mountain Majesty-- which we bring low with unrestricted strip mining which causes flooding and again poisonous ground water with un-treated runoff
Alabaster Cities--have you SEEN LA recently?
I realize she only wrote the song in 1913, but so much has become perverted in that time I feel like the worst kind of person singing the song. We as a nation were given a glorious gift in this country and we have squandered it in the name of progress and the greed of the elite.
In reality there is nothing worth saving out of our government except the most precious original ideals that were first laid down. It was a good idea, but just like every other thing in this whole country we have perverted and destroyed it to the point of being unrecognizable.
God's Grace sure better be shining on us... cause we freakin need it...
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Blacksploitation
I got a ad in the mail the other day, which must have been some bizarre demographical error, but the add was for a Black Book Club... As in the ethnicity, or Afr. Am. or whatever it is I am supposed to say now. Regardless I was actually put off by this. Why you say? The same reason I kinda have a problem with BET, or Ebony for that matter.
All these mediums simply increase the wedge that I was under the impression black leaders have been trying to erase. Or maybe I am out of the loop. I thought that we were all going for the idea that people are the same no matter what their skin color. Apparent;y these magazines and book clubs say differently. They seem to say that black people not only have different tastes in books, but that only a Black Book Club is able to cater to their specific needs. Same with magazines, and TV channels. All of these things do nothing but state to a person--"YOU ARE DIFFERENT."
Of course the motivation behind all these enterprises in NOT some noble spirit that seeks to provide for "their" people. Let us be CLEAR on that. The motivation is MONEY. They are telling on part of the community BUY OUR PRODUCTS!! YOU HAVE TO!! YOUR SKIN COLOR DEMANDS IT!!! I mean... talk about blacksploitation...
Like I said maybe I am wrong and out of the loop. Maybe we have all given up on the pretense of trying to combine races into the idea of equality. Maybe catering to the "black" vote as opposed to white vote is still happening. Maybe we should drop all pretenses and re-institute black schools, since white schools and white school teachers will never be able to understand the black nation since they don't watch BET and subscribe to Ebony or read "black" books...
who the hell have we been kidding all these years?
All these mediums simply increase the wedge that I was under the impression black leaders have been trying to erase. Or maybe I am out of the loop. I thought that we were all going for the idea that people are the same no matter what their skin color. Apparent;y these magazines and book clubs say differently. They seem to say that black people not only have different tastes in books, but that only a Black Book Club is able to cater to their specific needs. Same with magazines, and TV channels. All of these things do nothing but state to a person--"YOU ARE DIFFERENT."
Of course the motivation behind all these enterprises in NOT some noble spirit that seeks to provide for "their" people. Let us be CLEAR on that. The motivation is MONEY. They are telling on part of the community BUY OUR PRODUCTS!! YOU HAVE TO!! YOUR SKIN COLOR DEMANDS IT!!! I mean... talk about blacksploitation...
Like I said maybe I am wrong and out of the loop. Maybe we have all given up on the pretense of trying to combine races into the idea of equality. Maybe catering to the "black" vote as opposed to white vote is still happening. Maybe we should drop all pretenses and re-institute black schools, since white schools and white school teachers will never be able to understand the black nation since they don't watch BET and subscribe to Ebony or read "black" books...
who the hell have we been kidding all these years?
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
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