Well, gang, here we are again. I suppose most of you have signed up for this Nature Walk because of the result of the recent election. Whatever it takes to wake you up to the true nature of things. That you have reacted to the news by trying to be a more careful custodian of this fragile world we live in, is to be commended. As we explore the woods today, we will try to point out the various predator species which lurk just within the forest cover. And we will show you how to safely handle such animals, if they should invade your own quiet neighborhoods. VIZ.: the BROWN-SHIRTED LOON; the BLACK-LEATHERED BADGER; the PSYCHOPHANTIC VULTURE; and the
FAWNING MORON
Nothing unexpected in only 4% of responding Kossacks thinking we had a healthy democracy. This numberr, however, is only useful if someone knows how much of the RepubliCon opposition we represent. Is it 5%? 50%? Most of it?
But what I would really like to discuss is right out of Street Smarts 101. The chapter I call the Argentine General Rule.
Poll
A FASCIST AMERICA?
· We are there. 6%
· We have been there for a while. 12%
· We are almost over the line. 31%
· We are heading that way. 43%
· We are a healthy democracy. 0%
· We are a healthy oligarchy. 6%
Votes: 16
I am posting an analysis of a poll I took yesterday. It scrolled through the recent diaries in 8 minutes, attracting one comment.
Then I noticed that 16 people had voted in the poll. I had originally hoped to have hundreds of people voting on this subject. The sparse voting seemed to break down as one might expect. But a few issues arise.
It is heartwarming to see that the big internal hassle between progressive dems is not in sustaining the fight, but in focusing their efforts. Whether the progressive agenda can survive the attacks on democracy that we perceive coming from our Republican opposition, or American Liberty is totally hi-jacked by a neocon coup, we have to have a contingency plan for all possibilities. It is a no-brainer that we have to push for electoral reform. If the Republicans do not want to play with us, then we would obviously need to consider other remedies to save sweet Liberty.
A cautionary tale and some comments, below the fold.
I am an anthropologist. I tend to see everything over long spans of time. If I think I can see a trajectory, I try to plot where it is going to land. For instance, all civilizations can be plotted as a sine curve. In words, it may treanslate as this: A culture bounces along, it discovers or invents something new which causes it to increase its competitive advantage over its neighbors. It expands and absorbs its neighbors, rises in power and influence until for many possible reasons, not the least of which is entropy, it becomes effete, loses contrtol and dissolves again into the background.
(I am writing this in response to the article being written about over in the Open Threads. It concerns an article in the AUSTRALIAN, 1/31, titled TSUNAMI U.S. FAULT. I wish I was not so computer illiterate that I can not just link you. Sorry.)
We probably cannot blame this tsunami on the Bush Administration, but it is obvious that there are some out there who believe they can. As an Anthropologist, perhaps I can explain this.
The Department of Homeland Security was laid on us as the rational response to Osama bin Laden's declaration of war on America. Kerry had this absolutely right. To fight these transnational thugs we needed a world-wide police effort as well as the armed recovery of Afghanistan.
10. Because Tom Ridge told me on national TV, a bit petulantly, I thought, that he had spent three months coming up with his crayon code. This from the man in charge of my security. (My next post will deal with the absolute inappropriate response of our girly-man government, by jumping on a chair and screaming when Osama the Rat scurried across the floor. Kerry was right on this one. We needed a concerted world-wide police effort and not a unilateral blitzkrieg.}
Remember the story of the Three Wise Men? Did you ever wonder, how wise were they, anyway? I do not know if it will help our cause any, but here is the real skinny on those Magi dudes.
(I wish to thank everyone who slogged their way through my first post. I promise that if I ever feel like posting anything that dense again, I'll drop it on Cheney's toe first.)
This is my first post. I hope I am not out of line. I an somewhat freaked. I wrote the following piece during a particularly busy time of the intifada. I wrote it to show how banal suicide bombing had become among the Palestinians. I tried to translate the entire experience into American cultural archetypes. Why? So it could be talked about rationally. Believe me, for every Muslim parent that is "proud" of her "hero" son's suicide, there are ten who privately thank Allah that the pervereted purveyors of death have not ensnared their child. (CAUTION: the following essay treats suicide in a politically incorrect and insensitive manner.)
