Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died yesterday. He was 84.Source: Writer Kurt Vonnegut, Voice of U.S. Counterculture, Dies - washingtonpost.com
I know I read some of his works many years ago, but it's the movies that stick in my mind. Seems they were mostly made about the time I was coming of age...
Indoctrination is supposed to be a predicate for action commensurate with professions of seriousness.Source: George F. Will - Fuzzy Climate Math - washingtonpost.com
With a sentence like the one above in the first paragraph, you know George Will is on a roll. His disdain for climate change and global warming is well know, almost to the point of being a cliché. The points he makes about the "media-entertainment-environmental complex" are almost as comical as the standard "liberal media" label thrown out regularly by the "conservative" talking heads. His point seems to be that if the cost is higher than he wants to pay to clean up our act, then lets not do it. Why should we clean up our act if the "developing" countries wont clean up theirs?
George, look at the developing countries...Who are the big polluters? Aren't they, to a large extent, the same corporations that are being forced to clean up their business over here? Should they not be held accountable for their actions no matter where they take place? Bad corporate actors are bad whether they are in the USA, India, or SE Asia. By moving bad practices to poor countries you do not mitigate the action. At some point we must take responsibility for the damage our lifestyle does to the planet...Hopefully while there is still time to repair the damage. But the action will not happen as long as the talking heads with the megaphones keep preaching about how unfair it is to take action while the rest of the world does not.
This whole argument is a lot like the conservative argument against progressive tax systems. Why should those with the resources pay to help those without? Isn't that the argument in a nutshell. I made my fortune (or my daddy or my great-granddaddy), why can't the poor slob down on the corner do the same? I bought my place in the Rockies with the pristine views and the cold clean air, let the rest of the world find their own. Some attitude, eh?
As if the war in Iraq wasn't enough the Administration's surrogates are pushing us into Syria and Iran...
At the same time Syria is terrorizing Lebanon, it is facilitating the flow of insurgents into Iraq, supporting the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, and allowing its territory to be a foothold in the Arab world for Iran's belligerent ambitions. It continues all this despite scores of trips by senior diplomats to Damascus to "talk to the Syrians."
It is time to face facts. Talking to the Syrians emboldens and rewards them at the expense of America and our allies in the Middle East. It hasn't and won't change their behavior. They are an outlaw regime and should be isolated. Members of Congress and State Department officials should stop visiting Damascus. Arab leaders should stop receiving Bashar al-Assad. The U.N. Security Council should adopt a Chapter VII resolution mandating the establishment of an international tribunal for the Hariri murder.
Source: Liz Cheney - The Truth About Syria - washingtonpost.com
Now, after all that has happened in the past few years, who doesn't see Dick Cheney's voice behind this push to confront another country. How do these people decide which bad acting country is good and which one is evil? Who in this administration isn't living in the proverbial glass house as the cast stones at the world? The really sad part is they seem to enjoy throwing the stone while still inside their own glass house...
The clock on the wall say I now have my blood pressure up enough to go face Houston traffic...later...
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