nobody asked…

From Crooks & Liars newsletter 4/30/07:

New York Times:

In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.

The United States has previously admitted, sometimes under pressure from federal inspectors, that some of its reconstruction projects have been abandoned, delayed or poorly constructed. But this is the first time inspectors have found that projects officially declared a success — in some cases, as little as six months before the latest inspections — were no longer working properly. Read more…

So let me get this straight: We’ve spent over $300 billion in Iraq and all we have to show for it is 3,346 American deaths and 26,188 casualties, tens of thousands dead Iraqis, increased terrorism and a deeply fractured Iraqi country? At least the oil companies are raking in record profits, right?

From another angle: Our tax dollars, instead of being used to advantage to solve some of our problems at home, have been spent, along with a mortgage on our country’s future that will likely never be repaid, to kill, maim, and wound many thousands of Americans and Iraqis, further destroy an already devasted country, and pave the way for terrorist enemies to operate freely in a country where they could gain no toe-hold before we arrived.

Why? To give the US a larger presence in the region so we could promote oil field services and construction companies like Halliburton, and the big oil companies themselves, so they could turn around and gouge us with record high prices at the gasoline pump, so they could make record profits, build more facilities and bleed us some more? You want the axis of evil? Look no further than Bush-Cheney. They not only deserve impeachment, but should be charged with high treason and war crimes. They have sold out America and the American people to line their already wealthy pockets. There is no fate too severe for them and their comrades in crime.

[NOTE: I am quite aware that this is a gross oversimplification and a wordy rant. Like a growing majority of Americans, I am frustrated more than ever in my life. I believe very deeply that history, if our future is allowed to have a history, will show the basic charges to be correct. Let us hope that history does not identify these acts and these times as the beginning of the collapse and failure, the final days of, the United States of America.]

The great thing about television is that if something important happens anywhere in the world, day or night, you can always change the channel. — “Reverend” Jim Ignatowski, Taxi Television Series, 1978 — 1983

Taxi was my first introduction to Christopher Lloyd, who has since grown into one of our most recognizable and lovable character actors.

It starts mysteriously. It comes at you fast and  furiously. It weaves whole cloth from disparate yarns. It confuses and delights. And it ends so very poignantly.

If you can see only one more movie this year, make it Babel. Until bringing it home from the neighborhood Blockbuster last weekend, I had never heard of it. While watching it, I was totally captivated by it. Since then, I have been haunted by the beauty, the mastery, and the lingering mystery of it.

It has been a very long time since I saw such a powerful human drama. This is one of those movies that you walk away from at the end with an understanding of the impact that superb direction can have. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Director, demonstrates a rare vision in the telling of these stories written by Guillermo Arriaga. The acting of Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Rinko Kikuchi, and others combine to cast a powerful spell over the viewer. The haunting musical score by Gustavo Santaolalla brought him his second Academy Award.  Babel was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. All of the elements align to make this an intensely intelligent film.

If you have not seen it, please do so. If you have seen it, see it again. Something tells me that if I watched this one a hundred times, I would discover something new each time, and be eagerly anticipating the hundred and first time.

So long since I have posted… Three whole days… So busy… No time to think… No time to breathe… Why does it all happen at once… So tired… Be back soon…

[UPDATE: The links to Mick’s picasa gallery have been fixed. I always check links to make sure they work, so it is not clear whether they worked but then got broken or maybe I had a senior moment, a brain phart. Nevertheless, the links work now. Thanks and sincere apologies to Mick Brady.]

As our entwining and overlapping circles of blogs evolve, we develop some sense of what other writers are made of, what they do beyond blogging, maybe a glimpse of their personal and or work lives. Sometimes our perceptions are correct, sometimes they miss by a country mile. On this one, I hit the bullseye.

For as long as I have been reading Mick Brady’s Dancing in Tongues, I have sensed there was artistic genius at work behind that stern, sun-shaded face we see on his blog. From time to time Mick has teased us with flashes of his art. Now he has a number of pieces displayed in a picassa gallery. As soon as I laid eyes on the piece titled kabuki (for richard), it owned me. Usage requested. Granted. Voila. That’s a slice of Mick’s original up in my header. The colors, the texture, the openness, the complexity, the simplicity, the diversity, the overall feel of kabuki complements my site perfectly. I can only hope that what I do here never in any way taints Mick or his wonderful art.

Mick describes his work thusly: All of the digital art I create is made out of found objects; in fact, there may be a Buick fender or bumper floating around in there somewhere (digitally photographed, manipulated on the computer, layered, etc., but much of it goes back to (Richard Stankievicz). Studied with him directly for several years in undergrad school…

He continues that this particular piece is named after a sculpture by one of my primary teachers and mentors, Richard Stankievicz, who was one of the founding fathers, along with David Smith and others, of found object sculpture. He was a huge influence on me, and I have carried his thinking with me for many years.

My hearty thanks to Mick for allowing me to share his art in this way! I sincerely hope that the other activities and displays here never detract from or blemish Mick’s work.

[Since my header graphic changes from time to time, if my crop of Mick’s work is not in the header at the time you read this, please view the image here.]

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. — Arthur Schopenhauer

Too connected… I feel it. I see it. I hear it. Most of us are. Our bonding with gadgets that keep us in touch on a continuous basis has supplanted common sense, courtesy and respect in our society. Every day I see people who arrive at a destination while yakking on their cell phones, tend to their business making a purchase, pumping gas, mailing a package, ordering and eating a fast food lunch, whatever, get back in their vehicle and drive away, all the while never hanging up. Sometimes they talk inappropriately loud, irritating those within earshot. Every day I see people so distracted with their phone conversation that they cannot or are not paying attention to driving, resulting in near misses, stalled traffic lanes, and the occasional accident. What the hell could be that important?

How many times have you tried to talk to someone who is already engaged in conversation that you didn’t know about because their Bluetooth bug was in the ear that you couldn’t see? Have you observed someone on the street corner or in a store gesturing with arms and hands, talking into the air, and thought, that guy has issues, only to find out seconds later that he is into a rant to whoever his phone is connected with … and, anyone within range of his unwelcome tirade?

If I have a communication addiction it is email. Point-to-point for practical purposes, it overcomes my hearing deficiency, provides a permanent record if needed to later prove that I told you so, and is generally immediate and fast enough. My email address? Hmmm… which one of the 6 or 8 or 10 should I give you? Many of us (I am not among them) are also constantly immersed 24×7 in IM. Whether AIM, Yahoo, GTalk, or any one or more of the instant messaging clients available, they are all intrusive, time consuming, and demanding. And occasionally they might be marginally useful.

PDA, SlingBox feed to cell phone, FAX, multiple cell phones, olde-style pagers, land lines, Twitter, Facebook, My Space, VoIP, multiple email and IM accounts. I’m leaving out something, including whatever comes along tomorrow. It is all too overwhelming. It is all too intrusive and invasive. I do not want that much connectivity. I do not need that much connectivity. It is making us rude, abrupt, dangerous, and insane. We need… I need… quiet. Peace. Downtime. I need daily to get unplugged. I need daily to listen to my inner voices instead of external noise. Give me a symphony of silence to calm and re-orient my spirit, my essence, my core.

A recent hilarious post by Em about his Mom’s obsession with weather and her blind devotion to whatever is said on The Weather Channel gave me a deja vu flash. It sounded so much like… home. Roomie’s elderly mother lives in Missississississippi and is also quite obsessed with weather. It is not just a senior thing, because Roomie was weather fixated when I met her, and is certainly in the top ten of TWC fans, especially if there is any hint that bad weather might be within three states of us.

Mom-in-law turns off the TV, radio, and other appliances to assure that lightning will not hit the house. (??? Duh…OK…???) A couple of days ago she called Roomie, and the conversation went something like this…

Roomie: Hello.

Mom-in-law: They just said we have a bad storm coming in.

R: OK.

(Long pregnant pause…)

R: Is there something you want me to do about it?

M: I just wanted you to know so you wouldn’t try to call me. You know it’s dangerous to be on the phone during a storm.

R: But you called me. We’re on the phone now.

(Long pregnant pause number two…)

M: (Hurriedly…) Oh… I’ve gotta go. Bye. (Click… hangup and ensuing dial tone…)

Johnno, the world-class blogger, bloke, parrot lover, and Foster’s swilling mate from Downunder (I made up that last part - I don’t know his brand), has pointed the way to world peace. He did not discover this himself, but pointed the way to it on Wikipedia.

Countries with McDonald’s have never warred with each other. Ergo, the obvious way to peace is to get the Golden Arches introduced to every country on earth. The major foil would be the Pentagon. Would they stand still while peace was breaking out all over, threatening to put them out of their warmongering jobs? Methinks not. More likely they would be ordered by the Whitehouse to capture Ronald McDonald and whisk him away under cover of night, to be incarcerated indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay.

A straw dream at best, but definitely worth a McNugget of a thought and Big Mac smile.

The ubiquitously mis-interpreted and misquoted separation of church and state (First Amendment to the Contstitution) was simply a statement by the founders that would insure we did not revert to the tyranny of a state-sponsored religion that brought the pilgrims here in the first place. All well and good and proper. Now if only all of those at the top of the political ladder and the high priests of the myriad religious movements understood that…

But that is not what this post is about.

If a business person is a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Hindi, or any other religion, or none at all, it is fine for them to run their lives and businesses according to the basic principles of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or whatever they choose. And I submit that it really does not matter, because the basic codes of conduct are not that different among the major religions of the world. Even an atheist or agnostic, or someone who never really thought about religion or spirituality at all, should live and conduct business according to such principles. To do otherwise is tantamount to organizational suicide.

Now don’t go off on me with a bunch of god-talk and hell-fire and damnation. I’m simply talking about treating others with respect, the same way you want to be treated. If you can’t deliver, don’t promise. If you promise, then by-whatever-god-or-gods you worhip, deliver. Don’t lie, cheat, steal. Common sense life principles like that. That’s what I’m talking about.

Today I saw one that may have gone a tad over the edge. Oh, how I hate it when I see the good stuff and the camera is at home. At a coffee stop, there was this bigass bright yellow pickup truck. You know the ones, whether Dodge, Chevy, Ford, or … Cadillac, for gawd’s sake. The ones with the tires big enough for a family of four to live in. The ones with the bigass V-8 engines that gen 800 HP while guzzling petrol at about a gallon per mile. Those bigass trucks. This one was plastered with signs front, back, and both sides that read…

Jesus Loves You Siding & Roofing, LLC

That guy wears it on his sleeve. And his front bumper and his tailgate and both of his doors. I wonder if he lives it. Is that just a bit over the edge? Does he understand that before he gets out of his driveway he has alienated a significant share of his potential market? Most people would probably be more impressed by walking the walk than by talking the talk.

Or maybe there is something wrong with me? I think I will rename my business something like…

And On The Seventh Day

He Rested Network Support Group, Inc.

A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. — Thomas Carruthers

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. — George Bernard Shaw

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. — Ayn Rand in The Fountainhead

Until yesterday I considered my daily grind of network junkie to be the toughest job in Nashville, other than our police and fire fighters who have it tougher than anyone, and to whom we owe a big Thank You every day. But yesterday we all got trumped. When it was announced that Adam Pacman Jones had been suspended for the season, with reinstatement possible only if he complied with a long list of conditions, I jumped to the Titans website to find out who the Director of Player Development might be.

Tina Tuggle , an 11-year veteran with the Titans, holds that position and is the individual responsible for interfacing with Jones during the coming months of his penance. It is she who must meet tête-à-tête with the prince of darkness on a weekly basis, laying out and monitoring his character rehab and development plan. Her’s will not be an easy job, though she has a fine organization loaded with talent and experience behind her all the way.

My heart and best wishes go out to Tina. I do not envy her, but will applaud her every small victory on this treacherous road, regardless of the ultimate outcome. Expecting a miracle outcome from an impossible mission is not particularly fair. But that is Tina’s charge. Everybody send some positive vibes and thoughts and energies her way.

Today, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made the vast majority of Tennessee Titans fans very bittersweet happy when he announced suspension, without pay, of the gutter trash named Adam Pacman Jones for the entire season. I commend Mr. Goodell for his vision and courage in this action, and also in establishing a new get tough conduct policy with teeth that will serve to deal with problem children like Jones in the future.

Why do I say bittersweet? Because there is no argument about Jones’ tremendous talent as a football player who can make a difference. Last season we saw how he could turn a game around with one of his elusive scampers up the field returning kicks or interceptions. But he has also become a persistent fungus on the Titans, the NFL, his former teammates, the media, and worst of all, the fans who ultimately paid his exorbitant multi-million dollar salary. His ten scrapes with the law in two years far exceed the bounds of decency.

I don’t really want to hear any more about his childhood in the projects or growing up on the streets. So have plenty of others who have managed to rise to the responsibilities of adulthood and become role models for kids coming up behind them. Do I hope he is able to toe the lines drawn by the commish, finally grow up, and make something of his opportunities? Absolutely. Am I willing to bet that he will? Absolutley not.

For now, and at least until late in the next season, we’re done with him. Goodbye and good riddance…

GO TITANS!