polotics

I wrote this on my phone on June 29th - can't seem to post t the blog yet from there.
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So, at some point Sprint will actually get their act together and get the data plan for this new phone together and I'll be able to use it more to it's full capacity. Ideally that will be a few more blog posts and some more writing in general.

For example, right now I'm waiting for the C train @ Canal St. after a fundraiser at The Tank, the new hot downtown theatre/performance art space..

The fundraiser was OK, nothing extra-ordinary. I'm thinking of last night at Drinking Liberally when a co-drinker asked the somewhat doomed question, "I wonder when someone is finally going to say, 'Fuck the troops?'.

As some of you can imagine, I kept my temper, but barely. It's conversations like this that make me despair. Sheer ignorance is the bedrock of too many opinions to hear it at a progressive liberal meetup. I know for a fact that this opinion doesn't prevail through the majority of the left, but it definitely set my teeth on edge.

So, let me break it down into small chunks, as I understand it (open to rebuttle).

a) America needs some sort of a Military. I'm not sure many would dispute this point but I would like to build this argument from the ground up.

b) Said Military will indubitably be created from officers and enlisted men.

c) Enlisted men cannot be given the option to question orders. This is where things get sticky for some.

People who have never, and may never, be put into any combat situation assume that a soldier has a conscious, that can trump this directive. Or, in a milder term, that a soldier 'should' have something higher to appeal to than their immediate superior officer; a built-in moral guide.

The premise is that if soldiers<í>would just exercise their own moral judgement at times when they are put into potentially questionable situations they could then stand up against the moral wrong doings of the current Military strategy.

In my not-so-humble opinion, these are the same people who think war is fought by pretty rules that both sides have approved before-hand.

temporarily moving on.....

d) Officers and Politicians need to be held accountable for the orders they give and the strategy they prescribe. Particularly the latter.

e) If the soldiers are willing to put their own lives & morality on the line for us, it is our job, as citizens, to go to bat for them. It's our job to stand up for the soldiers, who have given of themselves, so that they ARE NOT used by corrupt agencies.

So, my answer to, "When is someone going to say, Fuck the troops?"; hopefully never.

Better to ask when is someone going to say, 'Save the Troops'. When are we as a people going to stand up to the real people forcing this war, at the cost of the lives of the people sworn to protect us? The people who need us to look out for them stateside?

*** Sidenote: Why must a soldier give up personal responsibility for their actions? Well, first, this is more-than-a-little misnomer. Many soldiers will forever be haunted by what they did in the service, regardless of who forgives them.. Beyond that, a soldier, plain and simple, must be able (not willing) to kill on the faith of a superior officer's word. Period. Not based on his/her own personal knowledge. This is a factor of supreme trust. If some people were not capable of this, we would have no military (a).

So, how about we get OUR act together stateside and help our soldiers?

Go comatose for a day and a half and you almost forget to VOTE! Glad I have som many friends taking every single opportunity to remind every one of heir audiences that today is voting day for everyone who wants to vote democrat.

Republican voting day is tomorrow. They're just instituting this policy this time around to see if it makes recounts easier by keeping them separated by day, so, remember, all Republicans are supposed to vote tomorrow. Just show up to your normal polling place anytime after 7am and vote. Democrats, same applies for Today!

So, it appears that a madman, leader of a country that has openly stated its dislike of the US, has tested a small nuclear device. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6033893.stm

So, I'm remembering the leadup to the Iraq war and this huge controversy over WMD, well, here they are. Iraq supposedley had yellowcake, this is a hell of a lot more serious than that ever thought about being. Where are the dogs of war? Why aren't we invading? Don't the North Korean people need to be liberated? I'm confused, doesn't this pose a clear and present danger to our union?

I'm not even gong to get into the political mashup on this one. I'm just going to leave you with these words.

The reasons presented for going to any war are never the actual reasons for going to war. We've seen this literally hundreds of times in history. If you reading this, and theres ever another build-up to war, and you recognize it for what it is, start looking around for he man behind the screen. He's there somewhere.

One of my pet projects, The Common Sense Rag is officially online! Its low on content so far, but hopefully it holds a decent amount of potential.

I'm hoping to get a few lively discussions going on over there. I hope it is something that resonates with people.

A lot of people are saying this is the start of WWIII and I'm not sure I disagree. This in from Al Jazeera via the BBC

Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has said in a video the militant network will respond to attacks on Muslims in Lebanon and Gaza.

The video was broadcast by Arabic television station al-Jazeera.

Al-Qaeda could not remain silent in the face of a "Crusader war" and now saw "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us", he said.

Events in Lebanon and Gaza showed the importance of the battle in Afghanistan and Iraq, he added.

"The war with Israel is not about a treaty, a ceasefire agreement... It is rather a jihad for the sake of God until the religion of God is established. It is jihad for the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine, as well as every land that was a home for Islam, from Andalusia to Iraq," he said.

"As they attack us everywhere, we will attack them everywhere. As they have joined forces to fight us, our nation will unite to fight them.

"The shells and rockets which are tearing the bodies of Muslims in Gaza and Lebanon are not purely Israeli. They are produced and financed by all the countries of the Crusader alliance.

I have to admit I've never wanted to look too closely at Mid-East polotics, but in the light of recent events I've been making a concerted effort to realy site down and figure some of this stuff out. What is the nature of the various conflicts, and how is the US involved in them?

This morning I came across this line:

Israel is one of the largest customers for US armaments.

It [Israel] also receives several billion dollars a year in direct and indirect aid from Washington.

That isn't taken out of context and those two sentences actually followed one another. here. A few days ago I found an article regarding us "rushing" the next shipment of precision bombs to Israel.

Now, two points, firstly, as I mentioned I'm an amateur at this, it seems to me that a lot of people want this bombing to stop. Kofi Annan has called for an immediate ceasefire. Experts worldwide generally accept that this tactic can't possibly stop Hezbollah and will most likely strengthen grassroots support for them.

Also seems to me that you need to have the precision bombs in order to be dropping them. So, why are we giving arms to anyone in the Middle East - especially the ones who are bombing the hell out of another country? How can this possibly lead to the bombing ending sooner.

For some bizarre reason I woke up this morning with a song from the musical South Pacific in my head. It has since left me (thank god), but it occurred to me; Ever notice how we don't make wacky musicals and sitcoms about war anymore?

I mean, South Pacific was in the WWII era, M*A*S*H was in Korea, The Great Escape was a classic, as was Kernal Clink and that whole gang... and yet no one's ever come up with a really good laughable VietNam story.

I mean, surely something funny must have happened. OK. How 'bout Iraq 1 - I mean that was a cakewalk, right? Don't we have a good sitcom about some crazy privates out in the desert from that?

No slapstick musical about goofy GI's on long range patrol in the jungle's and rice paddy's?

Geesh, you'd think something had changed in the nature of warfare or our perception of it... or perhaps a collective social unconcious morality questioning?

Reading on the BBC this morning this quote, "Hundreds of amphibian species will become extinct unless a global action plan is put into practice very soon, conservationists warn." Which, I can assure you, is factual enough.

Problem is that this isn't the message that eco-nuts need to be pressing even though it is accurate enough. I think my anger lies in the word "soon" as in: "I should do my laundry soon" or "I really should get to the gym soon".

Granted, there are those miraculously upright citizens that actually do what they should be doing when they should be doing it. Also granted, it isn't a scientists place to place emotional value judgements on their findings. But if we are going to put any global action into place soon we need to have started planning 5 years ago or more.

So here is my line in the sand. Scientists! Hear my call! People! Rally to this cause! The word isn't soon. The word is NOW!

And I mean exactly that. I've been an eco-nut for quite some time and if there are any fellow eco-nuts out there the time for us to start really yelling and clamoring about all this global warming, species dying, air pollutting, gas guzzling, strip mining, non-reusable, toxic Bullshit is NOW.

And because Frank said he wanted more pictures, I leave you with Mama-Frog. You can' tell in the picture, but this little gal is the length of a football field and lives in Antartica.... you know what she does when here home melts? Ok just kidding on that one:

Mama-Frog: courtesy of the BBC News Site

See this movie. An Inconvenient Truth

Very important topic.

Al Gore does a remarkable job of explaining this crisis in terms that are easy to understand and indisputable. He manages to contextualize the problem of global warming in a way that makes it evient how it affets you.

In truth it didn't tell me any new information - but that's because I've been studying this topic as best I could since the fourth grade. Most everyone else needs to know the consequences that will face us if we don't change the way we are living right now.

I know I might get accused of exaggerating this problem - just watch the movie. Global Warming is very real and vey much going to affect us all in our lifetimes - it already is.

Right now, it is indisputable that that the ice caps are melting more than they have in the past 650,000 years. Not a single expert disagrees on this point. This dispels the myths that global warming is cyclical, can't affect the world drastically, or not a direct consequence of our own human impact.

Been so busy these past weeks I haven't written much. I'm sitting here at the new 3LD theater space three blocks south of the World Trade Center leeching the excellent wi-fi.

This entire show I've been woking on is just reonforcing my decision to really pick and choose my life in the theater world. Have spent the week dealing with problems I warned people against months ago, spending too much money on food in this neighborhood, handling attitudes, and falling behind in any sort of work that really matters too me.

It isn't all that horrible, but it isn't the way I see my life going.

I haven't had time for much of anything lately. I'm falling behind in a few of my accounts, which I can't allow to happen.

I'm compelled to write because I keep turning back around to this notion of Freedom that I've recently mentioned. It seems as I grow older my penchant for hermit-ism is growing, my tolerance for society as it is waning, and my willingness to invest the time and energy into changing society non-existant.