draught.

y'all seriously need to jump on the glenn greenwald bandwagon with me:

"There are reports this morning that a NATO airstrike killed (another) one of Gadaffi's sons in Libya, so we'll be able to have some collective celebration to keep our minds off little things like the collapsing economy. It is telling indeed how virtually all political good news -- all national celebrations -- now involve America's ability to kill the latest Bad Guy. One benefit of Endless War is that it distracts the citizens' attention away from what is being done to them at home and makes them cheer for the leaders who are doing it to them."

yes, please.

i went to a "music listening" party last night. everyone brings a song to share. this is the song i brought. it will seem like i picked it because it's political, but that is false. i like it for other reasons.


If you're going to lead my country,
If you're gonna say it's free
I'm gonna need
a little honesty

Just a few honest words
It shouldn't be that hard
Just a few honest words
Is all I need

I don't need no handshake
No firm look in the eye
Don't tell me what you think I,
I ought to hear

I don't need no high life
No fancy premiers
Just tell me what you really think
Without fear

Just a few honest words
It shouldn't be that hard
Just a few honest words
Is all I need

Love is a bitter food
You've learned to eat
You still don't know
Where it grows

And our love of freedom
Holds a veil over our eyes
Rights that are given
Can be taken away

Just a few honest words
It shouldn't be that hard
Just a few honest words
Is all I need

We don't choose our leaders
They choose themselves
Tell me again
About democracy

tweet.

the second republican debate was tonight. apparently i wasn't in the right kind of mood for it. instead of taking notes like last time, i found myself scribbling nonsense.

if i had twitter...this is what it would have said for the past couple of hours.
-------------------
pawlenty can dish it but he can’t take it.

don’t talk to ME about the constitution.

bachmann says crazy things. not “ron paul” crazy. just crazy.

shameless cnn plug. SHAMELESS. you should be ashamed.

ron paul is in his own little world. his talking points are from another planet. it’s called REALITY. if we make it through the night without him using the word “obamacare” i’m going to cry tears of joy.

i don’t see jobs as the most important issue in our country. lack of jobs is a symptom of other problems.

santorum just referred to “innovation” as something this country should build on. which is what obama said during the state of the union. MINUS TEN POINTS.

pawlenty said something i agree with. we tell the government what to do, not the other way around. preach. someone tell the government to stop reading my blog.

I’M WITH COCO. how hard is that to say, santorum?

my organic lowfat yogurt strawberry probiotic smoothie from trader joe’s didn’t come with instructions. am i supposed to shake this thing or not?

i just went to look something up on wikipedia and accidentally typed “wikileaks.” heh.

didn’t godfather’s pizza go bankrupt? well, it’s not around. sketch.

i do not personally support the space program at this moment in history. that seems like an insane way to spend money when you don’t…have any.

someone needs to ask a question about the unjust wars we’re waging all over the world. if i was in the crowd, i’d be a heckler.

why doesn’t anyone ever poll me?

social security. here we go. i want my money. give me my money.

bachmann – just compared obama and bush. well now i might pay attention to what she has to say.

separation of church and state?? i didn’t realize this debate was taking place in LEFT FIELD.

cain won’t appoint a muslim. i won’t vote for cain. decision made. this is where republican candidates lose me and other swing voters. be rational, or you’ll lose the election. you lose a lot of people…right here. if you want to win the election…stop talking about muslims like this. you will lose if you don’t stop.

the candidate who says being pro-life includes views of war may get my vote…something about a consistent view of pro-life…anyone…bueller…anyone…

immigrant lady seems to not be a fan of immigration. she’s certainly assimilated well into america.

“…i wouldn’t start a war in libya, i’d stop bombing yemen…” somebody get me a ballot.

“do you agree with congressman paul that we should stop bombing yemen, with targeted attacks on al qaeda operatives, or do you agree with president obama, a democrat, who authorized the attacks?” – my favorite question of all time.

things you should not do during a debate: paraphrase your grandmother.

can i vote for the guy in the audience asking why we have military bases all over the world? who’s that guy?

ron paul 2012.

there we went, here we go again.

i went to a library booksale a couple months ago. i went with a friend. she picked up a book that sounded fascinating, and i told her she should definitely get it. she eventually put it back on the shelf, and i said "well, if you don't want it...i'm taking it." i wasn't going to fight her for it, but i wanted it.

books are not better than friends. books are not better than friends. books are not better than friends.

anyway, the book was:

Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist - Walter Bernstein

this guy fought with the united states military in world war two, and then came home...to be blacklisted as a communist sympathizer. he was a writer who couldn't find work because of all the hysteria surrounding hunting down communists.

i'm not going to go into the hysteria. i'm assuming that most people know about it. if not, there are plenty of books to read on the subject.

instead, i'm just going to put up some quotes from the book, and remind you that history repeats itself. there is nothing new under the sun. while it's tempting to look back on shameful periods of history and condemn them, it's a better idea to look at current events and wonder...

do past events illuminate current events? are there any similarities? have we given in to the same fear and hysteria? have we let the government and media fool us? do we just hear what they say and believe it without thoughtful criticism? do we find ourselves justifying things that are wrong?

has one enemy merely been replaced with another?

"He worried about the direction in which Truman was taking the country, instituting loyalty oaths for civil servants, creating a subversive activities board, proclaiming the Truman Doctrine to save the world from communism. Wallace believed the doctrine was a shame and would be used to curtail civil liberties."

"Being radical was considered a not totally unreasonable response to a system gone murderously out of control."

"It was my first example of what horror can be perpetrated in the name of security and how easy then to apologize for it."

"...history occurs twice, first as tragedy and then as farce..."

"We had the nature of the war on our side, an antifascist war, a just war. Everyone believed in it. We had been treacherously attacked; now we were fighting not only to survive but to defeat the forces of unambiguous evil. In this we had brave and gallant allies, not least among them the Soviet Union. No matter the different system; that was an internal affair. The enemy of our enemy was our friend."

"Truman proclaimed his doctrine: The United States would defend 'free peoples' anywhere in the world."

"They looked familiar, some even wore their old uniforms, but which ones had burned the cross? What had it taken to get them to beat up women and children, a few drinks fueling the menace of the Reds? They had fought and won a war against hatred and bigotry - to become this? I watched them parade, trying to match these hate-filled faces with those I had known."

"As always happens, what drew the headlines were the accusations, not the denials, and they had their desired effect, which was to create a climate of fear and suspicion."

"He announced that after investigation by the Westchester County district attorney, it was clear that 'Communist groups obviously did provoke this incident.' No further statement had to be made; notice had been served. The promise was in the sanctioned attack and the implied justification: Communist groups were to blame and Communist groups were whoever we said they were. They were the people we were against. In the case of Peekskill they were organizations openly supported by the Communists, but in other cases they could be just about anyone, which made them difficult to trap. They were slippery and sly; they used Aesopian language to conceal their real intentions; they were expert in deceit. And so we had our own experts to tell us who they were, and informers to back up the experts, and it did not matter if the informers had to be paid to inform or were caught lying or otherwise discredited; what mattered in this new climate were the accusations."

"There were rumors of government concentration camps already being set up for radicals when the time came. It had been done for Japanese Americans in World War Two. Detention camps were now sanctioned under the National Security Act. The U.S. Department of Justice had what it called a 'Security Index File of individuals to be apprehended and detained in connection with the Detention of Communists Program.'"

"The air turned smelly and poisonous. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives now had committees in full cry, hunting down Reds, pinkos and other affronts to the social order. A pliant press decried their methods but supported their aims, and rarely questioned their right to prosecute for political association."

"The Korean War was not discussable in any rational way. Probably no war is when it is going on. Either you accepted this one as unprovoked aggression or you were soon a pariah."

"The studios embraced anticommunism with the same calculated fervor they had recently reserved for Stalin. Hot or cold, a war was a war. There were good guys and bad guys. All the studios needed was to be told who was who. The government told them that."

"I plastered them over with belief in the rightness of the cause and the reassuring knowledge that at least I knew my enemy. He was right there in my face. The United States had started the cold war, needed it for imperial purpose, needed the terror of a blacklist to make that war seem necessary. Political persecution was becoming an acceptable norm. The law was being twisted in the name of anticommunism; government informers perjured themselves without fear of consequence."

"It had constantly to be enlarged in order to keep the threat real. There could be no such thing as a finite Red menace; evil cannot be seen as having boundaries. The impulse was religious even if the need was secular. The blacklist was the result of a politics grounded in fear and an economy dependent on military buildup. Based as it was on terror, falsehood and profit, it needed constant justification. Otherwise, there was the risk that like the physical universe, it might someday reach the limits of its expansion and collapse upon itself."

campaign for liberty.

hello, election season.

the last presidential election is what sparked my interest in politics and government. i found myself torn between who to vote for and did not decide until the night before. the night after obama won i went to a ben sollee concert. that’s not relevant. i’m just saying it happened.

i have learned so many things. and i’m still learning so many things. but this election season is different for me. i understand what’s going on. I watched the first republican debate tonight and was engaged for the entire hour and a half that it aired. and i was taking notes.

four pages of them.

yes. what you are dreading is true. i’m going to write about it.

**disclaimer: i am not loyal to any political party. (another topic for another time...) which means i have critical things to say about both. so a rejection of a candidate i listened to in the debate is not a rejection of the republican party or republicans...just that candidate.**

there were five candidates. two of them i am going to ignore here. except to say this:

herman cain. he’s the former CEO of godfather’s pizza. and that’s it. he never really said anything. he’s never held office. which is fine. but he doesn’t stand a chance so i’m not even going to go there.

gary johnson. former governor of new mexico. he was actually my second favorite. he had a few good things to say…such as being opposed to the war in iraq, and he’s a fan of the free market. he stated things very simply which i appreciated. but he’s pro-choice, which means he doesn’t stand a chance either. (single-issue voting republicans…another post for another time…)

so we have arrived at my least favorite. rick santorum. he has served in the house and senate.

he’s not cool.

when asked about statements he has made before about muslims, he went to a bad place. he reiterated that he is not anti-islam, but we have to deal with the fact that there’s an “ideological battle” going on.

sigh. i just checked to see if he helped write the 9/11 commission report. we’ve been here before. i recognize that tree.

a huge part of the problem is america’s foreign policy. his focus on islam as the problem will not lead to a solution.

he also briefly mentioned his support of use of torture to obtain information about terrorists/terrorist plots. because it led to the capture of bin laden.

“The fact that one can point to an instance where torture produced the desired answer proves nothing about whether there were more effective ways of obtaining it.” – Glenn Greenwald

torture, y’all. torture of a human being. don’t even try justifying it to me. there was One who was tortured for the good of mankind. no one else needs to be.

he said predictable republican things about healthcare.

i could go on about this guy for a long time. i didn’t like how he tried to connect the idea of “liberty” (what america was founded on) to moral issues…that’s not a clear connection. his thoughts on pakistan were bush-esque. he actually quoted bush. he’s the poster child for a republican candidate. everything stereotypical you could think about a republican…let’s just pretend that’s what he said. because he probably did. actually in his closing remarks he said he is conservative on every issue and has “arrows in his back from the mainstream media to prove it.” boo freaking hoo. what is the deal with republicans always whining about the media not loving them? the mainstream media isn’t even a reliable source of news, so why do you WANT them to be on your side?

my next least favorite was tim pawlenty. former governor of minnesota.

he is also a fan of torture because the “first order of business” for the government is to “protect the country.”

false.

safety is - not – the first order of business for the government.

don’t make me quote the federalist papers.

the first order of business is to ensure our freedom and liberty, not our safety. don’t let the government make you so afraid of terrorists that you yield to what is wrong and morally reprehensible.

being willing to torture someone because it will supposedly help protect us is incredibly twisted logic. preventing one evil with a different kind of evil doesn’t make any sense.

oh no, oh NO. this is the part about libya. oh. no.

he said the president has said that we oppose gaddafi, so we should back up those words by sending special forces to libya.

it gets worse.

he said the president wasn’t decisive enough when problems broke out in libya, and that if he had been more decisive, things would have been taken care of already.

i don’t know about you, but i remember being a bit SHOCKED to hear that we were in libya, and felt the president was a bit TOO HASTY in involving america.

decisiveness was not the problem.

it gets even worse.

he said the president should not have waited (WAITED?? did he wait? did he?) for the arab league to give him permission….

because, why, america can do whatever it wants?

he said our hands have been tied by the u.n. and he called the u.n. pathetic.

not touching that.

and that “if the president says he has to go, he must go.”

because if the president of the united states says something…the whole world has to obey?

i really can’t say anything else about him. i forgot who was my least favorite now. him or the other guy.

and it’s late now. and this is too long already. my favorite republican candidate gets a post of his own on another night.

ron paul…

says exactly what he thinks. even though it sounds crazy. just give him a minute to explain! i'm getting a head of myself.

post-concert.

i got to the show 40 minutes early because i left straight from work and didn’t have time to drive to my apartment and the doors weren’t open yet but there were two old ladies waiting with me and we talked about how excited we were and they finally let us in and this young guy next to me wanted to get a coke from the bar but they wouldn’t let him without an ID which i thought was funny and then 30 minutes later the show finally started and there was someone standing directly in front of me and i’ve been waiting 2 years and 5 months to see ben sollee so i picked up my chair and sat down in front of the person who had been standing directly in front of me and ben sollee smiled and played songs i can’t describe and songs i’ve never heard and there’s one called “hurting” that i really want to buy as soon as it releases and later the other artist casey driesson came out and he had a tail which is hard to explain but when the two of them played songs together another guy next to me started cussing it was so unbelievable i guess sometimes there just aren’t words and casey’s bass player is female and she’s the first female bass player i’ve ever liked because she didn’t dress or act like a man she wore a shirt with flowers and smiled a lot and was better than any bass player i think i’ve ever heard except for tony terusa but she didn’t have anything to prove and she still proved it and casey driesson played billie jean on his fiddle without words i don’t know why but it worked and i got a video of a song they played together so now i have my very own ben sollee video and i can’t get the music out of my head which is just fine with me.

life abundant.

i should start out by reminding you that the Bible says not to covet your neighbor's ox, donkey, wife, or DAY.

because i had an amazing one.

it began with waiting in line 40 minutes for a book sale. one of the library branches here sold all their books. at least it seemed that way to me. i got 8 books for $5.25. hello.

and i did this with a friend from college/old roommate that i haven't seen in a long time. and had lunch with her in an abandoned mexican restaurant. at least it seemed to be before we walked in.

and then, well...

i went to a cemetery. to...well, to read. under a tree. on a blanket. with a friend. for 4 hours. this tree:



sunshine. breeze. butterflies. which made me pose the question: do butterflies get tired? they're so active.

and then,

dinner at an amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing turkish restaurant. with more friends. a couple friends from church, and some international students that make me laugh. and here's a fact:

children in thailand, apparently, grow up learning how to sing "old macdonald had a farm." in english.

fact. that's a fact.

and now i have time to read more of one of my new books. and here are the titles:

hugo chavez: oil, politics, and the challenge to the U.S.

inside out: a memoir of the blacklist (about the crazy communist frenzy back in the day...a lot like the terrorist frenzy these days)

kennedy and nixon: the rivalry that shaped postwar america

the hobbit

wired

othello

the living (about vietnam)

and one more i'm not going to post the title of, because it's a gift for someone.

~ the end ~