The ugly american god

According to vice-president candidate Palin, the war in Irak is god's will and plan. We should be grateful for it:

"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's will."

God is also apparently a shareholder on big-oil and is very keen on pumping up whatever is left so that total destruction can be assured in time for his glorious second coming. Make sure you have your camera loaded and please post the event on YouTube.

"I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get the gas line built, so pray for that."

Like they say, this strategic candidate has an excellent record on both energy and the environment, issues that are intricately related. And, proverbially, two birds can be killed at once. Since it is her stated belief that human activity has no impact whatsoever on global warming (use the internet to check this outrageous if not plain stupid statement) then it is OK to "drill, drill, drill", "kill, kill, kill" so that we get rid of that inconvenient wilderness full of animals that deserve to be killed, not to mention the rest of humanity. That way we can all enjoy front seats at the Apocalypse. Excellent strategy.

Palin's favorite hobby

It is a sad thing to see the pathetic crowds pumped up by such shows of indifference to life, coming from someone who claims to be on god's side in everything she does. With that consultant who needs Kissinger?

It used to be that the "ugly american" usually referred to some individuals that exemplified the worst arrogance that this country exported abroad. But as of today the global perception has shifted to the "ugly country" which I guess plays very well with the political campaign slogan of "country first". After all our exports were suffering, now we have a true product that we are supposed to be proud of.

Made in America.

God, Guns and Country: The American Way

Harry S Truman, August 8, 195033rd president of US (1884 - 1972)

After hearing and seeing in the transmission of the Republican Convention the insanity of those who believe that the world was created in 6 days and therefore feel proud of "packing a pistol", killing for fun (or sport!) and sending their naive sons and daughters to war as cannon fodder to defend the black blood of comfort and greed, I think I will share a couple of quotes that coming from minds much bigger than my own are better able to summarize the dangerous situation being manufactured by the political machinery of the "righteous majority".

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him, the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable an ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. - Albert Einstein

Beware of the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch … the citizenry … will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How will I know? For this I have done. And I am Julius Caesar.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons. - Bertrand Russell

So I believe

What is a hero?

“In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours.” Ayn Rand

I think this quote above aptly describes what a hero is. Is it someone who is captured in a war? Perhaps, but perhaps not. Is it a political or sports figure? Once again, perhaps.... or perhaps not. Then what is it that makes a hero? I think that it's mostly what a person does in the midst of the unfortunate circumstances in which they find themselves. We may never know the full details of McCain's time as a wartime captive, so we probably can't say anything intelligently about it -- good or bad. No judgment is warranted because of lack of evidence. All we know is that he had the good fortune to somehow get through it alive. For that, I am grateful (otherwise I would be wishing him harm).

Many people want to be a hero, but few desire the hard life that comes with being one. And most heroes I know don't trumpet their accomplishments to the world. Instead, they desire to live a quiet life, free from the difficult circumstances that helped mold them into the heroes that they are.

The Bottom of the Pit

As I watch and listen in disgust to the body language and the hypocritical language of McCain, trying to present himself as a hero because he was unlucky or stupid enough to be captured by those whom he was trying to destroy, I am reminded of Bertolt Brecht's "Fear and Misery of the Third Reich":

One Big Family

Two SS Officers talk about "United Nation" and then start shooting.

A Case of Betrayal

A couple have "given away their neighbour" to the SS because they heard foreign broadcasts coming from his house.

Occupational disease

An injured man comes to a hospital. The surgeon explains before doing treatment a doctor must ask questions concerning the patient’s private life to check if he deserves treatment.

The motto

A Hitler Youth meeting, one boy hasn't learnt the motto "beat stab shoot them till they fall…" He is accused of learning "something different at home."

These are some of the scenes, do they sound familiar? The mere idea that a warmongering, angry and revengeful old man could be elected by the ignorant majority of "god fearing" and so easily swayed "voters" of the conservative persuasion should ring alarm bells in any human that has evolved beyond their reptilian stage.

At a moment when our planet, our "mother earth" is being raped and destroyed by the military-industrial-entertainment complex instead of pulling together as a species to try to survive the catastrophe that is upon us, greedy politicians will go to the depths of their bottomless pit to dig even more oily and bloody dirt to give themselves a beauty bath, to appeal to a public that cannot see beyond the soundbite, who are not able to recognize in the tone of voice, in the look of the eyes that show the darkness of their sick mind.

Like war-criminal Bush said in his "televised" and puppeteered appearance at the Republican Convention, McCain is "ready". He is for sure. Who in their right mind would want to shake the economy even further by disrupting the flow of billions to the war machine? the life and blood of this country?